Virtuous

How to spell virtuous

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce virtuous

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does virtuous mean?

1. adjectiveHaving or showing high moral standards and good behaviour.

Virtuous in a sentence

• The charity praised her as a virtuous and selfless volunteer.

• Living a virtuous life meant he kept his promises even when it cost him money.

Where does virtuous come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This adjective traces back to the Latin noun virtus, which meant moral excellence, worth, or strength of character. That noun was built on vir, the Latin word for 'man', so virtus originally carried the sense of the qualities expected of a worthy person, including courage and integrity. The Romans extended it from physical valour toward broader moral goodness, and Old French reshaped it into vertuous before English borrowed it in the 1300s. The English spelling later drifted back toward the Latin form, restoring the 'i' in 'virtu-' that the French had dropped. The same root sits inside 'virtue' and 'virtual', and remembering that the adjective is simply 'virtue' with the final 'e' replaced by '-ous' helps fix the spelling, since the trap is the unstressed '-tuous' ending that is easy to mangle.

How the word is built

• virtu- (from Latin virtus: moral excellence, worth)
• -ous (adjective suffix meaning 'full of')