quality
quality (kwŏlʹĭ-tē) noun
Abbr. qlty.
1. a. An inherent or distinguishing characteristic; a property. b. A personal trait, especially a character trait: someone with few redeeming qualities.
2. Essential character; nature: Mahogany has the quality of being durable.
3. a. Superiority of kind: an intellect of unquestioned quality. b. Degree or grade of excellence: yard goods of low quality.
4. a. High social position. b. Those in a high social position.
5. Music. Timbre, as determined by overtones: a voice with a distinctive metallic quality.
6. Linguistics. The character of a vowel sound determined by the size and shape of the oral cavity and the amount of resonance with which the sound is produced.
7. Logic. The positive or negative character of a proposition.
adjective
Having a high degree of excellence: "He settled in to read Edmund Wilson . . . It was quality time" (Margaret Truman).
[Middle English qualite, from Old French, from Latin quālitās, quālitāt-, from quālis, of what kind.]
Synonyms: quality, property, attribute, character, trait. These nouns all signify a feature that distinguishes or identifies someone or something. Quality is the most inclusive: "The spring of water . . . entirely lost the deliciousness of its pristine quality" (Nathaniel Hawthorne). "From now on an artist will be judged only by the resonance of his solitude or the quality of his despair" (Cyril Connolly). "The most vital quality a soldier can possess is self-confidence" (George S. Patton). A property is a basic or essential quality possessed by all members of a class: Resilience is a property of rubber. An attribute is a quality that is ascribed to someone or something: "God and all the attributes of God are eternal" (Spinoza). Character in this comparison is a distinctive feature of a group or category: "Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of Character and the Extinction of less-improved forms" (Charles Darwin). A trait is a single, clearly delineated characteristic, as of a person or group of people: "This reliance on authority is a fundamental primitive trait" (James Harvey Robinson).