Etymology

From Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#QUALITYCategory:English terms derived from Middle English#QUALITY qualite, from Old FrenchCategory:English terms derived from Old French#QUALITY qualité, from LatinCategory:English terms derived from Latin#QUALITY quālitās, quālitātem, from quālis (“of what kind”), from Proto-Indo-EuropeanCategory:English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European#QUALITY *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

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɒl.ɪ.ti/, [ˈkwɒɫ.ɪ.ti]Category:English 3-syllable words#QUALITYCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#QUALITY
• (General American, dialects of Canada, father-bother merger) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɑ.lə.ti/, [ˈkʰwɑ.lə.ɾi]Category:English 3-syllable words#QUALITYCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#QUALITY

  • Audio (California):

    (file)

    Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#QUALITY
• (Canada, dialects of the US) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɒl.ə.ti/, [ˈkwɒɫ.ə.ti]Category:English 3-syllable words#QUALITYCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#QUALITY
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɔl.ə.ti/, [ˈkwɔɫ.ə.ti], [ˈkwɔɫ.ə.ɾi]Category:English 3-syllable words#QUALITYCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#QUALITY
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɒl.ə.ti/, [ˈkwɔ̟ɫ.ə.ti], [ˈkwɔ̟ɫ.ə.ɾi]Category:English 3-syllable words#QUALITYCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#QUALITY
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /ˈkwælɪti/, /ˈkwælɪtɪ/Category:English 3-syllable words#QUALITYCategory:English 3-syllable words#QUALITYCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#QUALITY^[1]
• Hyphenation: qual‧i‧ty

Noun

quality (countable and uncountable, plural qualities)Category:English lemmas#QUALITYCategory:English nouns#QUALITYCategory:English uncountable nouns#QUALITYCategory:English countable nouns#QUALITYCategory:English countable nouns#QUALITYCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#QUALITYCategory:Pages with entries#QUALITYCategory:Pages with 1 entry#QUALITY

1. (uncountableCategory:English uncountable nouns#QUALITY) Level of excellence.

   This school is well-known for having teachers of high quality.Category:English terms with usage examples#QUALITY

   Quality of life is usually determined by health, education, and income.Category:English terms with usage examples#QUALITY

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter I, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

     “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.”

     Category:English terms with quotations#QUALITY

   • 2019, VOA Learning English (public domain)

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

2. (countableCategory:English countable nouns#QUALITY) Something that differentiates a thing or person.

   One of the qualities of pure iron is that it does not rust easily.Category:English terms with usage examples#QUALITY

   While being impulsive can be great for artists, it is not a desirable quality for engineers.Category:English terms with usage examples#QUALITY

   Security, stability, and efficiency are good qualities of an operating system.Category:English terms with usage examples#QUALITY

   • 1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, →OCLC, Act III:

     Tuc[ca]. […] Can thy Author doe it impudently enough? / Hiſt[rio]. O, I warrant you, Captaine: and ſpitefully inough too; he ha's one of the moſt ouerflowing villanous wits, in Rome. He will ſlander any man that breathes; If he diſguſt him. / Tucca. I'le know the poor, egregious, nitty Raſcall; and he haue ſuch commendable Qualities, I'le cheriſh him: […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#QUALITY

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XX, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

     “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.

     Category:English terms with quotations#QUALITY

   • 2010, Stanley Elkin, A Bad Man‎:

     Something about his bearing was uncommitted, as though he were checking not for some bad quality he knew Feldman had, but for some good quality he was afraid he might have.

     Category:English terms with quotations#QUALITY

3. (archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#QUALITY) Position; status; rank.
   • 1690, “The Preface to the Reader”, in A Full and True Relation of the Great and Wonderful Revolution That Hapned Lately in the Kingdom of Siam in the East-Indies, London: Randal Taylor, page i:

     The firſt Solemn Embaſſy that the French King ſent to the late King of SIAM, was in the Year 1685, by Monſieur de Chaumont, who went in Quality of Ambaſſador Extraordinary […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#QUALITY

4. (archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#QUALITY) High social position. (See also the quality.)

   A peasant is not allowed to fall in love with a lady of quality.Category:English terms with usage examples#QUALITY

   Membership of this golf club is limited to those of quality and wealth.Category:English terms with usage examples#QUALITY

5. (uncountableCategory:English uncountable nouns#QUALITY) 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. (thermodynamicsCategory:en:Thermodynamics#QUALITY) In a two-phase liquid–vapor mixture, the ratio of the mass of vapor present to the total mass of the mixture.
7. (emergency medicineCategory:en:Emergency medicine#QUALITY, countableCategory:English countable nouns#QUALITY) 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?".Category:English terms with usage examples#QUALITY

8. (countableCategory:English countable nouns#QUALITY, UKCategory:British English#QUALITY, journalismCategory:en:Mass media#QUALITY) A newspaper with relatively serious, high-quality content.
   • 1998, Bill Coxall, Lynton Robins, Robert Leach, Contemporary British Politics, page 164:

     It is argued that in the last ten years or so, quality broadsheet newspapers have become more like the tabloids. Anthony Sampson has argued that 'the frontier between the qualities and popular papers has virtually disappeared'.

     Category:English terms with quotations#QUALITY

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned

Adjective

quality (comparative more quality, superlative most quality)Category:English lemmas#QUALITYCategory:English adjectives#QUALITYCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#QUALITYCategory:Pages with entries#QUALITYCategory:Pages with 1 entry#QUALITY

1. (occasionally proscribedCategory:English proscribed terms#QUALITY) (attributive) Being of good worth, well made, fit for purpose; of high quality.

   We only sell quality products.Category:English terms with usage examples#QUALITY

   That was a quality game by Jim Smith.Category:English terms with usage examples#QUALITY

   A quality system ensures products meet customer requirements.Category:English terms with usage examples#QUALITY

   • 1930, Stella Blum, Everyday Fashion of the Thirties as pictured in Sears Catalogs, published 1986, page 4:

     A model for discriminating women! A "quality" coat in every sense!

     Category:English terms with quotations#QUALITY

   • a. 2003, John Ahier, John Beck, Rob Moore, quoting Harriet (a Cambridge University student), Graduate Citizens?: Issues of Citizenship and Higher Education‎, Routledge, published 2003, →ISBN, 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 . . .

     Category:English terms with quotations#QUALITY

   • 2004, Vance M. Thompson, MD, edited by J. Kevin Belville and Ronald J. Smith, LASIK Techniques: Pearls and Pitfalls‎, SLACK Incorporated, →ISBN, page 187:

     For one I wanted to have what I considered a very quality tracking device.

     Category:English terms with quotations#QUALITY

   • 2008, Fay Vincent, quoting Carl Erskine, We Would Have Played for Nothing: Baseball Stars of the 1950s and 1960s Talk About the Game They Loved‎, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 144:

     A very quality ball club; that was the Braves.

     Category:English terms with quotations#QUALITY

References

Further reading

• “quality”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “quality”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “quality”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.