English Online Dictionary. What means quality? What does quality mean?
English
Etymology
From Middle English [Term?], from Old French qualité, from Latin quālitātem, accusative of quālitās, 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/, [ˈkʰwɑɫəɾi]
- (obsolete) IPA(key): /ˈkwælɪti/, /ˈkwælɪtɪ/
Noun
quality (countable and uncountable, plural qualities)
- (uncountable) Level of excellence.
- 2019, VOA Learning English (public domain)
- He called for China’s cooperation in efforts to improve air quality.
- He called for China’s cooperation in efforts to improve air quality.
- (countable) Something that differentiates a thing or person.
- (archaic) Position; status; rank.
- (archaic) High social position. (See also the quality.)
- (uncountable) The degree to which a man-made object or system is free from bugs and flaws, as opposed to scope of functions or quantity of items.
- (thermodynamics) In a two-phase liquid–vapor mixture, the ratio of the mass of vapor present to the total mass of the mixture.
- (emergency medicine, countable) The third step in OPQRST where the responder investigates what the NOI/MOI feels like.
- (countable, UK, journalism) A newspaper with relatively serious, high-quality content.
Usage notes
- Adjectives often applied to "quality": high, good, excellent, exceptional, great, outstanding, satisfactory, acceptable, sufficient, adequate, poor, low, bad, inferior, dubious, environmental, visual, optical, industrial, total, artistic, educational, physical, musical, chemical, spiritual, intellectual, architectural, mechanical.
Synonyms
- See also Thesaurus:characteristic
Hyponyms
- human quality
- industrial quality
Coordinate terms
- (a property that differentiates): quiddity
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
Adjective
quality (comparative more quality, superlative most quality)
- 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.