quality

quality
qualityless, adj.
/kwol"i tee/, n., pl. qualities, adj.
n.
1. an essential or distinctive characteristic, property, or attribute: the chemical qualities of alcohol.
2. character or nature, as belonging to or distinguishing a thing: the quality of a sound.
3. character with respect to fineness, or grade of excellence: food of poor quality; silks of fine quality.
4. high grade; superiority; excellence: wood grain of quality.
5. a personality or character trait: kindness is one of her many good qualities.
6. native excellence or superiority.
7. an accomplishment or attainment.
8. good or high social position: a man of quality.
9. the superiority or distinction associated with high social position.
10. Acoustics. the texture of a tone, dependent on its overtone content, that distinguishes it from others of the same pitch and loudness.
11. Phonet. the tonal color, or timbre, that characterizes a particular vowel sound.
12. Logic. the character of a proposition as affirmative or negative.
13. Thermodynam. the proportion or percentage of vapor in a mixture of liquid and vapor, as wet steam.
14. social status or position.
15. a person of high social position: He's quality, that one is.
adj.
16. of or having superior quality: quality paper.
17. producing or providing products or services of high quality or merit: a quality publisher.
18. of or occupying high social status: a quality family.
19. marked by a concentrated expenditure of involvement, concern, or commitment: Counselors are urging that working parents try to spend more quality time with their children.
[1250-1300; ME qualite < OF < L qualitas, equiv. to qual(is) of what sort + -itas -ITY]
Syn. 1. trait, character, feature. QUALITY, ATTRIBUTE, PROPERTY agree in meaning a particular characteristic (of a person or thing). A QUALITY is a characteristic, innate or acquired, that, in some particular, determines the nature and behavior of a person or thing: naturalness as a quality; the quality of meat. An ATTRIBUTE was originally a quality attributed, usually to a person or something personified; more recently it has meant a fundamental or innate characteristic: an attribute of God; attributes of a logical mind.
PROPERTY applies only to things; it means a characteristic belonging specifically in the constitution of, or found (invariably) in, the behavior of a thing: physical properties of uranium or of limestone. 3. nature, kind, grade, sort, condition.

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In philosophy, a property that applies to things taken singly, in contrast to a relation, which applies to things taken in pairs, triples, etc.

The distinction drawn by Galileo and John Locke between primary and secondary qualities is motivated by the fact that modern science seems to reveal that unaided sensory perception gives false or incomplete information about the intrinsic qualities of physical objects. In this view, primary qualities, such as shape, quantity, and motion, are genuine properties of things that are describable by mathematics, whereas secondary qualities, such as odour, taste, sound, and colour, exist only in human consciousness.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Quality — degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfils requirements (p. 3.1.1 ISO 9000:2005). Источник …   Словарь-справочник терминов нормативно-технической документации

  • quality — 1 Quality, property, character, attribute, accidentall denote one of the intelligible marks or indications by means of which a thing may be identified or its constitution be understood. Quality is the term of widest application and may designate… …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • Quality — • Various definitions of quality and its forms or divisions Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. Quality     Quality     † …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Quality — Qual i*ty, n.; pl. {Qualities}. [F. qualit[ e], L. qualitas, fr. qualis how constituted, as; akin to E. which. See {Which}.] 1. The condition of being of such and such a sort as distinguished from others; nature or character relatively considered …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • quality — qual·i·ty n pl ties 1: a special, distinctive, or essential character: as a: a character, position, or role assumed those acts of ownership, which the person called to the succession can only do in quality of heir Louisiana Civil Code b: the… …   Law dictionary

  • quality — [kwôl′ə tē, kwäl′ə tē] n. pl. qualities [ME qualite < OFr < L qualitas < qualis, of what kind: see QUALE] 1. any of the features that make something what it is; characteristic element; attribute 2. basic nature; character; kind 3. the… …   English World dictionary

  • quality — (n.) c.1300, temperament, character, disposition. from O.Fr. qualite (12c., Mod.Fr. qualité), from L. qualitatem (nom. qualitas; said to have been coined by Cicero to translate Gk. poiotes), from qualis of what sort, from PIE pronomial base *kwo… …   Etymology dictionary

  • quality — [n1] characteristic, feature affection, affirmation, aspect, attribute, character, condition, constitution, description, element, endowment, essence, factor, genius, individuality, kind, make, mark, name of tune*, nature, nature of beast*,… …   New thesaurus

  • Quality — Quality. См. Качество. (Источник: «Металлы и сплавы. Справочник.» Под редакцией Ю.П. Солнцева; НПО Профессионал , НПО Мир и семья ; Санкт Петербург, 2003 г.) …   Словарь металлургических терминов

  • quality — is descriptive of organic composition of substance, expressed in definite quantitative units, and definitive of character, nature and degree of excellence of an article. Dean Rubber Mfg. Co. v. U. S., C.A.Mo., 356 F.2d 161, 163. In respect to… …   Black's law dictionary

  • quality — ► NOUN (pl. qualities) 1) the degree of excellence of something as measured against other similar things. 2) general excellence. 3) a distinctive attribute or characteristic. 4) archaic high social standing. ORIGIN Latin qualitas, from qualis of… …   English terms dictionary

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