ethics

«ethics» in Mova's school dictionary: right and wrong that guide how people act — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (ethics; also ethic, ethics as a subject)

meaning for a pupil

1) Ethics are the ideas about what is right and wrong that guide how people act. tree →

2) Ethics is a school subject or part of philosophy that thinks about right and wrong, fairness, and how to be good. tree →

3) (formal) The ethics of a job are its rules for honest behaviour, like a doctor keeping your secrets. tree →

sense in the lessons

In class, ethics lessons use dilemmas: should you tell on a friend who cheated? Pupils weigh consequences, rules, and kindness. Adults talk about business ethics, medical ethics and the ethics of science (for example, testing on animals). Phrases: a code of ethics, work ethic (being willing to work hard), against my ethics, the ethics of something.

examples

• In ethics class we argued about whether lying is ever right. tree →
• The ethics of keeping animals in zoos is a big question. tree →
• Doctors follow a strict code of ethics. tree →
• The ethics olympiad asked teams to solve hard dilemmas. tree →
• Gran has a strong work ethic and never misses a day. tree →
• Taking the money would be against his ethics. tree →
• Ethics is about how we should treat each other. tree →

note

As a subject, "ethics" takes a singular verb: "Ethics is interesting." As someone's principles, it is plural: "His ethics are strict." Adjective ethical. Not "ethnics" (about peoples and cultures).

In the corpora

• Ethics is careful thinking about right and wrong, good and bad, and the reasons for them.
• An ethics olympiad is a competition where school teams discuss real dilemmas.
• The Ethics Bowl is a similar competition in the USA and elsewhere, where teams analyse cases and respond to each other.
• Unlike a debate, an ethics bowl does not give teams a side they must defend; they may agree with each other.
• Character thinking asks what a good, kind, brave and honest person would do; philosophers call it virtue ethics.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «ethics» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.