quality
an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone
How often you will meet it
Rank 2,126 of 71,295 words measured. It occurs 8,334 times across 175,160 chapters — 0.004% of every word in the library.
What it means
noun
- an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone the quality of mercy is not strained
- a degree or grade of excellence or worth also: caliber, calibre the quality of students has risenan executive of low caliber
- a characteristic property that defines the apparent individual nature of something also: character, lineament each town has a quality all its ownthe radical character of our demands
- (music) the distinctive property of a complex sound (a voice or noise or musical sound) also: timbre, timber, tone the timbre of her soprano was rich and lovelythe muffled tones of the broken bell summoned them to meet
- high social status a man of quality
adjective
- of superior grade also: choice, prime, prize, select choice winesprime beef
- of high social status people of qualitya quality family
quality in real books
Each sentence below was written by a published author and is taken from a different book in our library. Open one to read the passage it came from, with narration.
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He sprang back with a sharp cry, unlike his level quality, his confident conceit.
The Abandoned Room · Wadsworth Camp · Chapter 1
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The best supply in this case will only very slowly affect the quality of the demand.
The Novel and the Common School · Charles Dudley Warner · Chapter 1
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One cannot say what quality there is in some voices and pronunciation that makes them so attractive.
The Reflections of Ambrosine: A Novel · Elinor Glyn · Chapter 1
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He contented himself, therefore, with acquiring an estate that should be valuable, rather from its quality and beauty, than from its extent.
The Wept of Wish-Ton-Wish · James Fenimore Cooper · Chapter 1
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Murmurs of objection to the voice being characterized at all by any technical word, or even for a human quality, were heard.
Sandra Belloni (originally Emilia in England) — Complete · George Meredith · Chapter 1