English Explanatory Dictionary

quality

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The kind, condition, and/or the set of characteristics of something, as opposed to the quantity of something.
  2. A single trait.
  3. Good characteristics in particular; level of excellence; freedom of faults and flaws.
  4. Good worth, good make.
  5. Position; status; rank.
  6. High social position. (See also the quality.)
  7. In a two-phase liquid–vapor mixture, the ratio of the mass of vapor present to the total mass of the mixture.
  8. The third step in OPQRST where the responder investigates what the NOI/MOI feels like.
  9. A newspaper with relatively serious, high-quality content.

Pronunciation

/ˈkwɒl.ɪ.ti/ [ˈkwɒɫ.ɪ.ti] /ˈkwɑ.lə.ti/ [ˈkʰwɑ.lə.ɾi] en-us-quality.ogg /ˈkwɒl.ə.ti/ [ˈkwɒɫ.ə.ti] /ˈkwɔl.ə.ti/ [ˈkwɔɫ.ə.ti] [ˈkwɔɫ.ə.ɾi] /ˈkwælɪti/ /ˈkwælɪtɪ/

Word forms

quality qualities

Etymology

From Middle English qualite, from Old French qualité, from Latin quālitās, quālitātem, from quālis (“of what kind”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷo- (“who, how”). Cicero coined qualitas as a calque to translate the Ancient Greek word ποιότης (poiótēs, “quality”), coined by Plato from ποῖος (poîos, “of what nature, of what kind”).

Related words

qualia qualitative

Derived words

data quality draft-quality high-quality high quality rip letter-quality letter-quality printing low-quality medium-quality near letter-quality nonquality poor-quality potato-quality preview-quality qualify qualitative qualitied qualitiness quality-adjusted quality-adjusted life year quality assurance quality binding quality circle quality control quality fade qualityless quality magazine qualityness quality newspaper quality of life quality of service quality over quantity quality requirement quality start quality time qualitywise redeeming quality star quality subquality superquality surface quality the Quality top-quality total quality management unqualitied unquality voice quality
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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