Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or concerned with the judgment of right or wrong of human action and character.
  • adjective Teaching or exhibiting goodness or correctness of character and behavior.
  • adjective Conforming to standards of what is right or just in behavior; virtuous.
  • adjective Arising from conscience or the sense of right and wrong.
  • adjective Having psychological rather than physical or tangible effects.
  • adjective Based on strong likelihood or firm conviction, rather than on the actual evidence.
  • noun The lesson or principle contained in or taught by a fable, a story, or an event.
  • noun A concisely expressed precept or general truth; a maxim.
  • noun Rules or habits of conduct, especially of sexual conduct, with reference to standards of right and wrong.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To moralize.
  • Of or pertaining to rules of right conduct; concerning the distinction of right from wrong; ethical. In this sense moral is opposed to non-moral, which denotes the absence of ethical distinctions.
  • In accord with, or controlled by, the rules of right conduct: opposed to immoral. In this sense moral is often used specifically of conduct in the sexual relation.
  • In a special sense, relating to the private and social duties of men as distinct from civil responsibilities: specifically so used in the Hegelian philosophy.
  • Connected with the perception of right and wrong in conduct, especially when this is regarded as an innate power of the mind; connected with or pertaining to the conscience. See moral sense, moral law, below.
  • Capable of distinguishing between right and wrong; hence, bound to conform to what is right; subject, to a principle of duty; accountable.
  • Depending upon considerations of what generally occurs; resting upon grounds of probability: opposed to demonstrative: as, moral evidence; moral arguments. See moral certainty, under certainty.
  • Of or pertaining to morals.
  • Having a moral; emblematical; allegorical; symbolical.
  • Pertaining to the mind; mental: opposed to physical.
  • Pertaining to the will, or conative element of the soul, as distinguished from the intellect or cognitive part. This refers to the usual pre-Kantian division of the soul.
  • Moralizing.
  • See law.
  • Ethics; the science of morality.
  • noun Morality; the doctrine or practice of the duties of life.
  • noun plural Conduct; behavior; course of life in regard to right and wrong; specifically, sexual conduct: as, a man of good morals.
  • noun Moral philosophy; ethics.
  • noun The doctrine inculcated by a fable, apologue, or fiction; the practical lesson which anything is designed to teach; hence, intent; meaning.
  • noun An emblem, personification, or allegory; especially, an allegorical drama. See morality. 6.
  • noun A certainty.
  • noun An exact likeness; a counterpart.
  • noun Synonyms See morality.
  • noun See inference.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb obsolete To moralize.
  • adjective Relating to duty or obligation; pertaining to those intentions and actions of which right and wrong, virtue and vice, are predicated, or to the rules by which such intentions and actions ought to be directed; relating to the practice, manners, or conduct of men as social beings in relation to each other, as respects right and wrong, so far as they are properly subject to rules.
  • adjective Conformed to accepted rules of right; acting in conformity with such rules; virtuous; just. Used sometimes in distinction from religious.
  • adjective Capable of right and wrong action or of being governed by a sense of right; subject to the law of duty.
  • adjective Acting upon or through one's moral nature or sense of right, or suited to act in such a manner. Sometimes opposed to material and physical.
  • adjective Supported by reason or probability; practically sufficient; -- opposed to legal or demonstrable
  • adjective Serving to teach or convey a moral
  • adjective a being who is capable of acting with reference to right and wrong.
  • adjective a very high degree or probability, although not demonstrable as a certainty; a probability of so high a degree that it can be confidently acted upon in the affairs of life.
  • adjective insanity, so called, of the moral system; badness alleged to be irresponsible.
  • adjective the science of duty; the science which treats of the nature and condition of man as a moral being, of the duties which result from his moral relations, and the reasons on which they are founded.
  • adjective [Obs.] an allegorical play; a morality.
  • adjective the power of moral judgment and feeling; the capacity to perceive what is right or wrong in moral conduct, and to approve or disapprove, independently of education or the knowledge of any positive rule or law.
  • adjective theology applied to morals; practical theology; casuistry.
  • noun The doctrine or practice of the duties of life; manner of living as regards right and wrong; conduct; behavior; -- usually in the plural.
  • noun The inner meaning or significance of a fable, a narrative, an occurrence, an experience, etc.; the practical lesson which anything is designed or fitted to teach; the doctrine meant to be inculcated by a fiction; a maxim.
  • noun A morality play. See Morality, 5.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behaviour, especially for teaching right behaviour.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin mōrālis, from mōs, mōr-, custom; see mē- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French moral, from Latin mōrālis ("relating to manners or morals") (first used by Cicero, to translate Ancient Greek ἠθικός (ēthikos, "moral")), from mos ("manner, custom").

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Examples

  • If we are going to debate the question whether there is a need for moral principles, we need some idea of what we mean by a ˜moral principle™.

    Moral Particularism Dancy, Jonathan 2009

  • Assuming an action has moral worth only if it expresses a good will, such actions have no genuine ˜moral worth™.

    Kant's Moral Philosophy Johnson, Robert 2008

  • What I mean by "Moral Primary" is a moral concept which need not be justified on the basis of any other * moral* premise.

    The Genius of Isaac Bashevis Singer Hughes, Ted 1965

  • And see you not how the mighty engine of _moral power_ is dragging in its rear the Bible and peace societies, anti-slavery and temperance, sabbath schools, moral reform, and missions? or to adopt another figure, do not these seven philanthropic associations compose the beautiful tints in that bow of promise which spans the arch of our moral heaven?

    The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus American Anti-Slavery Society

  • And see you not how the mighty engine of _moral power_ is dragging in its rear the Bible and peace societies, anti-slavery and temperance, sabbath schools, moral reform, and missions? or to adopt another figure, do not these seven philanthropic associations compose the beautiful tints in that bow of promise which spans the arch of our moral heaven?

    The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus American Anti-Slavery Society

  • And see you not how the mighty engine of _moral power_ is dragging in its rear the Bible and peace societies, anti-slavery and temperance, sabbath schools, moral reform, and missions? or to adopt another figure, do not these seven philanthropic associations compose the beautiful tints in that bow of promise which spans the arch of our moral heaven?

    The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 1 of 4 American Anti-Slavery Society

  • And see you not how the mighty engine of _moral power_ is dragging in its rear the Bible and peace societies, anti-slavery and temperance, sabbath schools, moral reform, and missions? or to adopt another figure, do not these seven philanthropic associations compose the beautiful tints in that bow of promise which spans the arch of our moral heaven?

    The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 1 of 4 American Anti-Slavery Society

  • _Beautiful_, for instance, is said not only of a successful expression, but also of a scientific truth, of an action successfully achieved, and of a moral action: thus we talk of an _intellectual beauty_, of a _beautiful action_, of a _moral beauty_.

    Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic Benedetto Croce 1909

  • It is the moral strength, or, at any rate, the _moral consciousness_ which struck and surprised me so much in the poems.

    A Writer's Recollections — Volume 1 Humphry Ward 1885

  • The less complete reaction from sophistic teaching attempted only such reconstruction of the moral point of view as should recover a law or principle of general and universally cogent character, whereon might be built anew a _moral_ order without attempting to extend the inquiry as to a universal principle into the regions of abstract truth or into physics.

    A Short History of Greek Philosophy John Marshall 1880

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  • Money gestures. Which is nothing if you've got the stuff to burn. Besides, it doesn't work. Money's not legal tender in the moral world. From "The Last Werewolf" by Glen Duncan.

    March 19, 2012