ethic

noun

eth·ic ˈe-thik

: a set of moral principles : a theory or system of moral values

the present-day materialistic ethic

an old-fashioned work ethic

—often used in plural but singular or plural in construction

an elaborate ethicsChristian ethics

ethics ˈe-thiks

plural in form but singular or plural in construction : the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group

professional ethics

: a consciousness of moral importance

forge a conservation ethic

: a guiding philosophy

ethics plural : a set of moral issues or aspects (such as rightness)

debated the ethics of human cloning

ethics plural in form but singular or plural in construction : the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation

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Ethics vs Morals: Is there a difference?

Ethics and morals are both used in the plural and are often regarded as synonyms, but there is some distinction in how they are used.

Morals often describes one's particular values concerning what is right and what is wrong:

It would go against my morals to help you cheat on the test.

He appears to view himself as a kind of culture warrior, striking out against the crumbling morals of modern society.
Jonathan Goldsbie, Now Toronto, 16 Oct. 2014

While ethics can refer broadly to moral principles, one often sees it applied to questions of correct behavior within a relatively narrow area of activity:

Our class had a debate over the ethics of genetic testing.

Anybody, it seemed, could make the music -- if they couldn't play guitar, they could push a button -- and nobody worried about the ethics of appropriating riffs.
Jennifer Foote, Newsweek, 23 July 1990

In addition, morals usually connotes an element of subjective preference, while ethics tends to suggest aspects of universal fairness and the question of whether or not an action is responsible:

Perhaps you don’t like Kim Kardashian, or her family, or her morals don’t align with yours, or you just think it’s weird that she might have had some plastic surgery, likes to apply makeup in a really complicated way and named her kid “Saint.”
Sarah Boboltz, The Huffington Post, 12 Oct. 2016

The Frenches, both professors in The Media School, focused on the ethics of making medical decisions for a child who could not express her own wishes yet…
Chris Mura, Indiana Daily Student, 18 Oct. 2016

Example Sentences

Ethics is his chosen field of study.

Recent Examples on the Web So that's kind of where the punk ethic seeped into the blues and the funk styling. —

Alessandro Corona, The Enquirer, 9 Dec. 2022 Despite their Hollywood-lead status, both possess the workman-like ethic of character actors, keeping up the startling pace of three to five films a year on average for the past decade. —

Erik Morse, Vogue, 3 Dec. 2022 It’s this ethic that’s kept him at the head of the Hollywood pack for more than two decades now. —

Ben Court, Men's Health, 16 Nov. 2022 Some insisted that Christianity’s ethic of love required the immediate abolition of slavery. —

John Fabian Witt, Washington Post, 24 Oct. 2022 To some, this nascent technology is terrifying, an attack on our ethic of individualism, and a step toward a Borg-like society. —

Wired, 13 Aug. 2022 Minow, a former dean of Harvard Law School, provides here a model of humane consideration on the limits of the adversarial ethic. —

Bo Seo, The Atlantic, 1 June 2022 The ethic of noninterference involves our ability to control decisions about our own lives, for good or ill. —

Jeannie Suk Gersen, The New Yorker, 20 June 2022 De Niro took the Stanislavskian ethic of rigorous preparation to an extreme without being beholden to the dogma that had grown up around the Method in the United States. —

Evan Kindley, The New Republic, 31 Jan. 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'ethic.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.