Respectability Meaning
/ɹɪˌspɛktəˈbɪlɪti/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounThe quality of being respectable.
nounThe class of respectable people.
Sentence Examples
He has an air of respectability about him.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The politician's bribery scandal completely destroyed his ____ among the honest residents.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The family had worked hard to maintain an air of ____ in the community despite their financial difficulties.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree English respect Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlis Proto-Italic *-ðlis Latin -bilis Latin -ābilis Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-ts Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ts Proto-Italic *-tāts Latin -tās Latin -abilitas Middle French -abletébor. Middle English -ablete English -ability English respectability From respect + -ability.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Such a scandal as the prosecution of a brother for forgery—with a verdict of guilty—is a most truly horrible, deplorable, fatal thing. It takes the respectability out of a family perhaps at a critical moment, when the family is just assuming the robes of respectability: […] it is a black spot which all the soaps ever advertised could never wash off."
— 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
"Though he knew it not, the subtle spirit of vagabondage had taken possession of his soul, and even of his hat, which seemed suddenly to have lost its original respectability, and acquired an air of dissoluteness."
— 1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 76:
"But once again Hodgson's men found a way to get the result they required and there is a real air of respectability about their campaign even though they had to survive a first-half siege from a Ukraine side desperate for the win they needed to progress."
— 2012 June 19, Phil McNulty, “England 1-0 Ukraine”, in BBC Sport:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The politician's bribery scandal completely destroyed his ____ among the honest residents.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The family had worked hard to maintain an air of ____ in the community despite their financial difficulties.