Honorable
What it means
Consistent with strong moral standards and deserving respect.
Reach for it when praising a choice, conduct, or person for doing what is right
Returning the prize after finding the scoring error was the honorable decision.
Words to choose between 8
| everyday | |
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| professional | |
| formal |
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| literary |
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everyday
Fits when basic fairness and humane conduct deserve plain praise
Careful Decent is too modest for an act involving serious sacrifice or moral courage.
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everyday
Fits when equal treatment or a just decision is the specific merit
Careful Fair covers one dimension and does not establish the person's overall honor.
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professional
Fits when conduct follows stated moral rules or professional standards
Careful Ethical can sound procedural and may not convey personal nobility or respect.
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professional
Fits when the person follows convictions even when doing so costs them
Careful Principled can also describe inflexible adherence to a questionable principle.
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professional
Fits when careful attention to moral and procedural correctness matters
Careful It may imply painstaking caution rather than courageous right action.
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formal
Fits when behavior meets accepted standards and merits regard
Careful Respectability may reflect convention more than genuine moral rightness.
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formal
Fits when a person's consistently moral character is being praised
Careful It is old-fashioned for describing a single fair decision.
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literary
Fits when high-minded motives and generosity are central
Careful Noble can sound grandiose when the conduct was simply correct.
Opposites 3
- dishonorable
- corrupt
- unprincipled
Common phrases 3
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honorable choice
She made the honorable choice and disclosed the conflict before the vote.
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honorable person
He was known as an honorable person who never used private knowledge for gain.
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honorable conduct
The captain's honorable conduct mattered more than the final score.
Word family 1
Definitions and examples are written for this site. How words are chosen Recording: Neskaya, American accent, from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 Updated