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.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. rare 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. rare Right judgment.
WordNet 3.0
- n. righteousness as a consequence of being honorable and honest
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Middle French rectitude, from Late Latin rectitūdō ("straightness, uprightness"), from Latin rectus ("straight"), perfect passive participle of regō ("regulate, guide"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin rēctitūdō, from Latin rēctus, straight. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
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 4087 more...
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Familiar
Just a list of words
fulminate, unctuous, malediction, lumpenproletariat, descry, surfeit, sententious, supernumerary, unabashed, picayune, obliterate, decry and 112 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Words from Blood Meridian
visage, affray, scullery, miasma, mirth, purlieu, tacit, benighted, wickiup, corral, amble, accoutre and 210 more...
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From reading
Collected from reading
venerate, reprobate, reticent, adoration, ethereal, ephemeral, equivocal, contumacious, heinous, solicitous, agnostic, aberration and 335 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 503 more...
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FUN - bogus definitions
Find the words (left) for the definitions below
- the person upon whom one coughs at
- appalled over how much weight you have gained
- to give up all hope of ever having a flat st...coffee, flabbergasted, abdicate, esplanade, willy-nilly, negligent, lymph, gargoyle, flatulance, testicle, rectitude, Pokemon and 4 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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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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logos's list
A poor pathetic thing, but mine own.
invidious, lugubriousness, vilify, noisome, synastry, front and center, declension, conjugation, regnal, diphthong, circumlocution, bishopric and 141 more...
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Chennessy's Words
philistine, messianic, dyad, cult, bourgeois, blot, ploy, polyglot, lingua franca, cumbersome, lumber, petit-bourgeois and 446 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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Personal Vocabulary List
All my favourite words that I come across!
veritable, incongruence, rigamorole, letcherous, revolting, repulsive, reputrid, rapatious, forays, guise, placate, paradigm and 1162 more...
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wickedwitch's list
lll
alit, plinth, eclat, diaphanous, portico, nival, daedal, apse, fossa, pellet, avail, midge and 143 more...
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SCRUBJAYS IDIOM
EXTRAPOLATE, altruistic, misanthropic, predicate, pejoritive, disparaging, bucolic, sylvan, veracity, autodidact, jejune, erudite and 110 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for rectitude.

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