RIGHTEOUSNESS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does righteousness mean? 

• RIGHTEOUSNESS (noun)
  The noun RIGHTEOUSNESS has 1 sense:

1. adhering to moral principles

  Familiarity information: RIGHTEOUSNESS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RIGHTEOUSNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Adhering to moral principles

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("righteousness" is a kind of...):

morality (concern with the distinction between good and evil or right and wrong; right or good conduct)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "righteousness"):

impeccability (the quality of being exempt from sin or incapable of sinning)

rectitude; uprightness (righteousness as a consequence of being honorable and honest)

piety; piousness (righteousness by virtue of being pious)

justice; justness (the quality of being just or fair)

honorableness; honourableness (the quality of deserving honor or respect; characterized by honor)

honor; honour (the quality of being honorable and having a good name)

honestness; honesty (the quality of being honest)

Antonym:

unrighteousness (failure to adhere to moral principles)

Derivation:

righteous (characterized by or proceeding from accepted standards of morality or justice)

 Context examples 

What have I done to deserve such a fate, I who have tried to walk in meekness and righteousness all my days.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Self-righteousness is not religion.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“Look at him, Hump,” Wolf Larsen said to me, look at this bit of animated dust, this aggregation of matter that moves and breathes and defies me and thoroughly believes itself to be compounded of something good; that is impressed with certain human fictions such as righteousness and honesty, and that will live up to them in spite of all personal discomforts and menaces.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I was frightened when I became conscious that I was seeing red, and the thought flashed through my mind: was I, too, becoming tainted by the brutality of my environment? —I, who even in the most flagrant crimes had denied the justice and righteousness of capital punishment?

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)