name, noun ·Common ·High school level
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"Without virtue, there is no freedom."
"The commission of acts by a person which he or she believes to be wrong can cause a diminishment of one or more of the virtues which subsist in the person's personality; in this way such actions may be viewed as significant life events."
"The divine virtues of truth and equity are the only bands of friendship, the only supports of society."
"There were divers other plants, which I had no notion of or understanding about, that might, perhaps, have virtues of their own, which I could not find out."
"Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers; / For in possession such, not only of right, / I call ye, and declare ye now […]."
"though she did not suppose Lydia to be deliberately engaging in an elopement without the intention of marriage, she had no difficulty in believing that neither her virtue nor her understanding would preserve her from falling an easy prey."
"There was a virtue in the wave; His limbs, that, stiff with toil, Dragg’d heavy, from the copious draught receiv’d Lightness and supple strength."
"She became rich by virtue of hard work and good business sense."
(uncountable) The idea of all that is good or excellent (in every sense of those terms) in a human being, collectively instantiated by a varying number of human traits known as "the virtues", the enumeration of which vary by the many virtue systems which have developed within different cultures, religions, and historical periods.
Common synonyms include: goodness, merit, abstract value, academic integrity, advantageousness, affection.
She became rich by virtue of hard work and good business sense.
Pronounced /ˈvɜːt͡ʃuː/.
From Middle English vertu, virtue, borrowed from Anglo-Norman vertu, virtu, from Latin virtus (“manliness, bravery, worth, moral excellence”), from vir (“man”). Doublet of vertu. See virile. In this sense, displaced Old English cræft, whence Modern English craft.