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''virtuous'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260723122144-00-⌔

virtuous - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Adjective

virtuous (comparative more virtuous, superlative most virtuous)

  • Full of virtue; having excellent moral character.
    • ✤ Synonyms: good, righteous, (obsolete) virtual; see also Thesaurus: virtuous
    • ✤ Successful communities need strong, selfless leaders and a virtuous people.
    • ✤ Her virtuous, pale-blue, saucerlike eyes flooded with leviathan tears on unexpected occasions and made Yossarian mad.1

Etymology

From Middle English vertuous, borrowed from Anglo-Norman vertuous, vertous, ultimately from Late Latin virtuōsus, from Latin virtūs. By surface analysis, virtue +‎ -ous. Doublet of virtuoso and piecewise doublet of virtùous.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈvɜːt͡ʃʊəs/
  • (General American) IPA: /ˈvɝt͡ʃuəs/
  • Audio (General American): 🔊
  • Hyphenation: vir‧tu‧ous

Printed 2026-07-23.

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Footnotes

  1. 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 171: ↩