quality definition

English

Etymology

From Middle English [Term?], from Old French qualité, from Latin quālitātem, accusative of quālitās, from quālis (“of what kind”), from Proto-Indo-European *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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɒlɪti/
• (UK, obsolete) IPA^(key): /ˈkwælɪti/, /ˈkwælɪtɪ/
• (US, father-bother merger, weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɑləti/, [ˈkʰwɑɫəɾi]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

quality (countable and uncountable, plural qualities)

1. (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[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter I, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, OCLC 1227855:

     “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.”

   • 2019, VOA Learning English (public domain)

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

     Audio (US)

     (file)

2. (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.

   • 1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, OCLC 316392309, Act III, scene iv:

     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: […]

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XX, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, OCLC 1227855:

     “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.

   • 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.

3. (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.

4. (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.
5. (thermodynamics) In a two-phase liquid–vapor mixture, the ratio of the mass of vapor present to the total mass of the mixture.
6. (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?".

7. (countable, Britain, journalism) 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'.

Usage notes

• 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

• See also Thesaurus:characteristic

Hyponyms

• human quality
• industrial quality

Coordinate terms

• (a property that differentiates): quiddity

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Adjective

quality (comparative more quality, superlative most quality)

1. 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,, John Ahier, John Beck, Rob Moore, quoting Harriet (a Cambridge University student), Graduate Citizens?: Issues of Citizenship and Higher Education‎^[1], 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 . . .

   • 2004, Vance M. Thompson, MD, J. Kevin Belville and Ronald J. Smith, editors, LASIK Techniques: Pearls and Pitfalls‎^[2], SLACK Incorporated, →ISBN, 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^[3], Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 144:

     A very quality ball club; that was the Braves.

Derived terms

• qualityness

Related terms

• qualia
• qualitative

Translations

References

• Quality (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Further reading

• quality in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• quality in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• quality at OneLook Dictionary Search