Ethics: Moral principles that govern a person's behavior or the conducting of an activity. (Synonym terms include: moral code, morals, morality, values, rights and wrongs, principles, ideals, standards [of behavior], value system, virtues, and dictates of conscience)

Etymology definition: "the science of morals," c. 1600, plural of Middle English ethik "study of morals" (see ethic). The word also traces to Ta Ethika, title of Aristotle's work. Related: Ethicist.

Etymology definition of the word moral: mid-14c., "pertaining to character or temperament" (good or bad), from Old French moral (14c.) and directly from Latin moralis "proper behavior of a person in society," literally "pertaining to manners," coined by Cicero ("De Fato," II.i) to translate Greek ethikos (see ethics) from Latin mos (genitive moris) "one's disposition," in plural, "mores, customs, manners, morals"

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