quality

English Online Dictionary. What means quality‎? What does quality mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle English qualite, from Old French qualité, from Latin quālitās, quālitātem, from quālis (“of what kind”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷo- (“who, how”). Cicero coined qualitas as a calque to translate the Ancient Greek word ποιότης (poiótēs, “quality”), coined by Plato from ποῖος (poîos, “of what nature, of what kind”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɒlɪti/
• (US, father-bother merger, weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɑləti/, [ˈkʰwɑ.lə.ɾi]
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɔl.ə.ti/, [ˈkwɔɫ.ə.ti]
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /ˈkwælɪti/, /ˈkwælɪtɪ/

Noun

quality (countable and uncountable, plural qualities)

1. (uncountable) Level of excellence.
   • 2019, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     He called for China’s cooperation in efforts to improve air quality.

2. (countable) Something that differentiates a thing or person.
3. (archaic) Position; status; rank.
4. (archaic) High social position. (See also the quality.)

5. (uncountable) The degree to which a man-made object or system is free from faults and flaws, as opposed to scope of functions or quantity of items.
6. (thermodynamics) In a two-phase liquid–vapor mixture, the ratio of the mass of vapor present to the total mass of the mixture.
7. (emergency medicine, countable) The third step in OPQRST where the responder investigates what the NOI/MOI feels like.

8. (countable, UK, journalism) A newspaper with relatively serious, high-quality content.

Usage notes

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:characteristic

Hyponyms

• industrial quality

Coordinate terms

• (a property that differentiates): quiddity

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

quality (comparative more quality, superlative most quality)

1. (attributive) Being of good worth, well made, fit for purpose; of high quality.

Derived terms

• qualityness

Related terms

• qualia
• qualitative

Translations

References

Further reading

• “quality”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “quality”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “quality”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.