virtue
n. C / Un. a good quality or habit that shows high moral standards. It can also mean an advantage or a useful feature of something.
n. behavior showing high moral standards or a particular quality that is considered morally good. In a secondary sense, it refers to an advantageous or beneficial quality of a thing.
Patience is a virtue when you are teaching children.
The main virtue of this new software is its ability to run on older computers without crashing.
Classical philosophers often debated which virtue was most essential for a leader, usually placing justice and wisdom at the top of the hierarchy.
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.
Often used in the fixed phrase 'by virtue of', meaning 'because of' or 'on the basis of'.
- 01
dormitive virtue
A type of tautology in which an item is explained in terms of the item itself, only put in different (usually more abstract) words.
- 02
make a virtue of necessity
To make the best of a difficult situation; to recast or portray an action or situation in which one has no alternatives as an action or situation which was deliberately chosen on its merits.