Wordul · all words

noun · 2 syllables · /ˈiː.θɒs/

ETHOS

What does "ETHOS" mean?

The characteristic spirit, values, or beliefs of a person, group, or culture.

Meanings

  1. The defining character, values, or guiding beliefs of a community or era. An ethos of openness ran through the whole company.
  2. In rhetoric, an appeal to the speaker's credibility and character. Aristotle named ethos, pathos, and logos as the three appeals. technical

Did you know?

  • Aristotle split persuasion into three appeals - ethos (the speaker's character), pathos (the audience's emotion), and logos (the argument's logic) - and over two thousand years later, every ad still uses all three.

Word origin

Directly from Greek 'ethos' (custom, habit, character) - the same root that gives us 'ethic' and 'ethical'; Aristotle made it one of his three modes of persuasion.

Remember it

ETHOS and ETHIC are siblings from the same Greek root - ethos is the spirit, ethic is the rule it produces.

A little poem

Not what the sign on the door says,
but how the room behaves
when no customer is in it.

tercet

Wordplay

  • Why do ethos and ethic always finish each other's sentences? They share the exact same Greek root - one is the spirit, the other is just the spirit with rules.

What it teaches

An ethos is not declared on a wall; it is the unwritten rule a place keeps when it forgets it's being judged.

Quick facts

What does ETHOS mean?

The characteristic spirit, values, or beliefs of a person, group, or culture.

Is ETHOS a valid word?

Yes — ETHOS is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.

How many letters is ETHOS?

ETHOS has 5 letters and 2 syllables.

Where does ETHOS come from?

Directly from Greek 'ethos' (custom, habit, character) - the same root that gives us 'ethic' and 'ethical'; Aristotle made it one of his three modes of persuasion.

What can ETHOS teach us?

An ethos is not declared on a wall; it is the unwritten rule a place keeps when it forgets it's being judged.

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