Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Moral uprightness; righteousness.
- n. The quality or condition of being correct in judgment.
- n. The quality of being straight.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Straightness: as, the rectitude of a line.
- n. Rightness of principle or practice; uprightness of mind; exact conformity to truth, or to the rules prescribed for moral conduct by either divine or human laws; integrity; honesty; justice.
- n. Correctness; freedom from error, as of conduct.
- n. Synonyms Integrity, Uprightness, etc. (see honesty), principle, equity.
Wiktionary
- n. Straightness; the state or quality of having a constant direction and not being crooked or bent.
- n. Rightness of principle or practice; exact conformity to truth, or to the rules prescribed for moral conduct, either by divine or human laws; (moral) uprightness.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Straightness.
- n. Rightness of principle or practice; exact conformity to truth, or to the rules prescribed for moral conduct, either by divine or human laws; uprightness of mind; uprightness; integrity; honesty; justice.
- n. Right judgment.
WordNet 3.0
- n. righteousness as a consequence of being honorable and honest
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin rēctitūdō, from Latin rēctus, straight; see reg- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Next, with the insolent assumption of superiority, which he founds on what he calls the rectitude of his purpose, he proposed we should both withdraw from a neighbourhood into which we could bring nothing but wretchedness. —”
“-- Next, with the insolent assumption of superiority, which he founds on what he calls the rectitude of his purpose, he proposed we should both withdraw from a neighbourhood into which we could bring nothing but wretchedness.”
“Let the patricians speak for themselves, but to claim to be the bearers of American values and rectitude is just silly and outrageous. —”
Obama Dines With Conservative Columnists - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com
“The Obama administration's insistence on fiscal rectitude is dictated not by financial necessity, but by political considerations.”
The Huffington Post: George Soros: How Partisanship Is Blocking Economic Recovery in the U.S.
“The Obama administration's insistence on fiscal rectitude is dictated not by financial necessity but by political considerations.”
The Huffington Post: George Soros: America Needs Stimulus Not Virtue
“Finally, if anyone can be trusted to restrict supposedly immoral speech, it should be those whose own moral rectitude is unimpeachable.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » NY Times Room for Debate Forum on the Use of Offensive Language
“It surely must have occurred to some Europeans that lectures on fiscal rectitude from the Americans display a modicum of hypocrisy.”
“This triumphant vindication of Christ's rectitude is to us divine evidence, bright as heaven, that He is indeed the Saviour of the world, God's”
“If the conviction of any misconduct on your part, give you pain, dissipate it by the reflection, that unerring rectitude is not the lot of mortals, that few are to be found who have not deviated in a greater or less degree from the maxims of prudence.”
The Coquette, or, The History of Eliza Wharton: A Novel Founded on Fact
“s insistence on fiscal rectitude is dictated not by financial necessity but by political considerations.”
The Huffington Post: George Soros: America Needs Stimulus Not Virtue
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘rectitude’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 414 more...
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February 2012
filiopietistic, bifurcate, enclave, wedlock, decadent, unduly, defunct, lapel, tumescent, capitulation, leaden, scintilla and 83 more...
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Kangaroo Words 2
Kangaroo words with joey-antonyms, e.g., pest/pet
pest, friend, giant, cremate, covert, there, feast, wonderful, animosity, inattentive, electrocuted, rectitude and 54 more...
waltermargin The disposition of a ruler? Oct 12, 2009
whichbe What comes out of the rector. Dec 24, 2008
oroboros RectitUDE Apr 26, 2008
oroboros The formal, dignified manner adopted by proctologists. --Mensa word list winner 2006 Mar 2, 2007