Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- rightness of principle or conduct; moral virtue: the rectitude of her motives.
- correctness: rectitude of judgment.
- straightness.
noun
- moral or religious correctness
- correctness of judgment
early 15c., “quality of being straight,” from Middle French rectitude (14c.), from Late Latin rectitudinem (nominative rectitudo) “straightness, uprightness,” from Latin rectus “straight” (see right (adj.1)). Sense of “upright in conduct or character” is from 1530s.