MEANING
The beliefs, attitudes, and habits that give a person, group, or institution its distinctive character.
Use it for
characterizing an institution’s shared outlook; contrasting declared rules with prevailing values; describing the moral or cultural character of a groupDescribes characteristic shared values and habits rather than merely formal rules or individual opinions. Academic functions: Theory / Conceptual Language, Analysis / Interpretation.
Words that belong together
- institutional ethos
- professional ethos
- an ethos of cooperation
On the page
The interviews reveal a professional ethos that values independence even when formal rules encourage collaboration.
The critic contrasts the community’s ethos of restraint with the protagonist’s pursuit of personal recognition.
Nearby words
Word forms
- Base
- ethos
Usage notes
Usually singular or uncountable: the ethos of a group; an institutional ethos. No routine plural is needed in general academic writing. Register: neutral. Commonness: moderately common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
Keep a thought for later. Sign in to save privately.