Ethical

How to spell ethical

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce ethical

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ethical mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to moral principles, or conforming to accepted standards of right conduct.

Ethical in a sentence

• The company published an ethical code for its suppliers.

• Investors increasingly favour ethical funds that avoid harmful industries.

Where does ethical come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word descends from the Greek ethos, which literally meant 'character', 'custom', or 'habitual way of living'. From ethos the Greeks formed ethikos, an adjective meaning 'relating to character or morals', and the plural noun ta ethika gave the philosophical field of ethics, made famous by Aristotle's treatises on how a person should live. Latin absorbed the term as ethicus, and English took up 'ethic' and then 'ethical' in the late 1500s, building the familiar adjective with the doubled suffix -ic plus -al. The spelling preserves the Greek 'th', and the unstressed second syllable, sounding like a faint 'i', is the small trap, since writers sometimes drift toward an 'a' or drop the vowel. The same ethos root still surfaces in modern words like 'ethos' itself and the related field name 'ethics'.

How the word is built

• eth- (from Greek ethos: character, custom)
• -ic (relating to)
• -al (adjective suffix)