virtue

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A good moral quality in a person.

   Patience is a virtue worth developing.

2. 2
   noun

   Behaviour that follows high moral standards; goodness.

   He led a life of virtue and honesty.

3. 3
   noun

   A good or useful quality of something; an advantage.

   The main virtue of the plan is its simplicity.

From Middle English vertu, virtue, borrowed from Anglo-Norman vertu, virtu, from Latin virtus (“manliness, bravery, worth, moral excellence”), from vir (“man”). Doublet of vertu. See virile. In this sense, displaced Old English cræft, whence Modern English craft.

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