Definitions

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

  • noun Moral uprightness; righteousness.
  • noun The quality or condition of being correct in judgment.
  • noun The quality of being straight.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Straightness: as, the rectitude of a line.
  • noun 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.
  • noun Correctness; freedom from error, as of conduct.
  • noun Synonyms Integrity, Uprightness, etc. (see honesty), principle, equity.

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

  • noun rare Straightness.
  • noun 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.
  • noun rare Right judgment.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun righteousness as a consequence of being honorable and honest

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin rēctitūdō, from Latin rēctus, straight; see reg- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English, from Middle French rectitude, from Late Latin rectitūdō ("straightness, uprightness"), from Latin rectus ("straight"), perfect passive participle of regō ("regulate, guide").

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  • The formal, dignified manner adopted by proctologists. --Mensa word list winner 2006

    March 2, 2007

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    April 26, 2008

  • What comes out of the rector.

    December 24, 2008

  • The disposition of a ruler?

    October 13, 2009