quality
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English, from Old French qualité, from Latin qualitatem, accusative of qualitas, from qualis (“of what kind”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷo- (“who, how”). Cicero coined qualitas as a calque to translate the Ancient Greek word ποιότης (poiótes, “quality”), coined by Plato from ποῖος (poios, “of what nature, of what kind”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
quality (countable and uncountable, plural qualities)
- (uncountable) Level of excellence
- This school is well-known for having teachers of high quality.
- Quality of life is usually determined by health, education, and income.
- 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter I:
- “I'll tell you what you're going to do. Have you a clean shirt?” “Several.” “And a toothbrush?” “Two, both of the finest quality.” “Then pack them. You're coming to Brinkley tomorrow.”
- (countable) A property or an attribute that differentiates a thing or person.
- One of the qualities of pure iron is that it does not rust easily.
- While being impulsive can be great for artists, it is not a desirable quality for engineers.
- Security, stability, and efficiency are good qualities of an operating system.
- 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter XX:
- “That's life,” she said, and buzzed off to keep her vigil, leaving me kicking myself because I'd forgotten to say anything about the quality of mercy not being strained. It isn't, as I dare say you know, and a mention of this might just have done the trick.
- (archaic) High social position. (See also the quality.)
- A peasant is not allowed to fall in love with a lady of quality.
- Membership of this golf club is limited to those of quality and wealth.
- (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.
- To identify quality try asking, "what does it feel like?".
Usage notes[edit]
- 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[edit]
- See also Wikisaurus:characteristic
Coordinate terms[edit]
- (a property that differentiates): quiddity
Derived terms[edit]
Look at pages starting with quality.
Derived terms
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
level of excellence
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differentiating property or attribute
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ratio of the mass of vapor present to the total mass of a two-phase liquid–vapor mixture
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archaic: social position
degree to which a man-made object or system is free from bugs and flaws
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Adjective[edit]
quality (comparative more quality, superlative most quality)
- Being of good worth, well made, fit for purpose.
- We only sell quality products.
- That was a quality game by Jim Smith.
- A quality system ensures products meet customer requirements.
- a. 2003, Harriet (a Cambridge University student), quoted in John Ahier, John Beck, Rob Moore, Graduate Citizens?: Issues of Citizenship and Higher Education, Routledge (2003), ISBN 978-0-415-25722-0, page 114:
- I mean a lot of the money that obviously goes into universities and their libraries and their facilities and their academics and stuff but I mean I haven’t had a very quality degree to be honest. I think the quality of my education has been crap . . .
- 2004, Vance M. Thompson, MD, in J. Kevin Belville and Ronald J. Smith (editors), LASIK Techniques: Pearls and Pitfalls, SLACK Incorporated, ISBN 978-1-55642-622-3, page 187:
- For one I wanted to have what I considered a very quality tracking device.
- 2008, Carl Erskine, in Fay Vincent, We Would Have Played for Nothing: Baseball Stars of the 1950s and 1960s Talk About the Game They Loved, Simon and Schuster, ISBN 978-1-4165-5342-7, page 144:
- A very quality ball club; that was the Braves.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
being of good worth
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Related terms[edit]
External links[edit]
- quality in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- quality in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
- quality at OneLook Dictionary Search
Categories:
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms with audio links
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English archaic terms
- en:Thermodynamics
- en:Emergency medicine
- English adjectives
