Qualities

How to spell qualities

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce qualities

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does qualities mean?

1. nounDistinctive features or characteristics, often the good ones, that someone or something possesses.

Qualities in a sentence

• The interviewer listed the qualities she valued most in a manager.

• These two laptops differ in price but share many useful qualities.

Where does qualities come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the plural of 'quality', which reaches English from the Latin noun qualitas, meaning 'the nature or kind of something'. Roman writers, and Cicero in particular, are credited with coining qualitas to translate a Greek idea about 'what sort' a thing is, building it directly on qualis, meaning 'of what kind'. The word travelled into English through Old French qualite during the 1200s, first carrying the sense of an inherent attribute or characteristic, and only later acquiring its everyday meaning of general excellence or grade. The Latin root qualis is the same element that sits inside 'quale' and the question word 'which kind', which explains the 'qua-' opening that adults sometimes misremember as 'kwa'. When pluralised, 'quality' follows the regular rule for words ending in a consonant plus -y, dropping the y and adding -ies, which is the small spelling shift worth noting.

How the word is built

• qual- (from Latin qualis: of what kind)
• -ity (noun-forming suffix denoting a state or property)
• -es (plural)