rectitude
REK-tih-toodnounMeaning moral uprightness; strict honesty and goodness
Memory hook RECT = STRAIGHT: an upright life. Judge Ada stands as straight as a ruler and lives the same way: she has never told a lie or taken a bribe. Her rectitude is famous.
Her rectitude made her the obvious choice to guard the prize money.
In context Even his rivals admired the old captain’s rectitude; in fifty years at sea he had never broken a promise, hidden a gift or bent a rule for a friend.
Similar uprightness, integrity, righteousness, honesty
Opposite wickedness, corruption, dishonesty
From Late Latin rectitudo, “straightness,” from rectus (straight, right), the same root as rectangle.