Dictionary Definition
respect
Noun
1 (usually preceded by `in') a detail or point;
"it differs in that respect" [syn: regard]
2 the condition of being honored (esteemed or
respected or well regarded); "it is held in esteem"; "a man who has
earned high regard" [syn: esteem, regard] [ant: disesteem]
3 an attitude of admiration or esteem; "she lost
all respect for him" [syn: esteem, regard] [ant: disrespect]
4 a courteous expression (by word or deed) of
esteem or regard; "his deference to her wishes was very
flattering"; "be sure to give my respects to the dean" [syn:
deference]
5 behavior intended to please your parents;
"their children were never very strong on obedience"; "he went to
law school out of respect for his father's wishes" [syn: obedience]
6 a feeling of friendship and esteem; "she
mistook his manly regard for love"; "he inspires respect" [syn:
regard]
7 courteous regard for people's feelings; "in
deference to your wishes"; "out of respect for his privacy" [syn:
deference, respectfulness]
Verb
1 regard highly; think much of; "I respect his
judgement"; "We prize his creativity" [syn: esteem, value, prize, prise] [ant: disrespect, disrespect]
2 show respect towards; "honor your parents!"
[syn: honor, honour, abide by,
observe] [ant: disrespect]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Pronunciation
- /ɹɪˈspɛkt/
-
- Rhymes: -ɛkt
- Hyphenation: re·spect
Noun
- an attitude of consideration or high regard
- He is an intellectual giant, and I have great respect for him.
- good opinion, honor, or admiration
- (always plural): Polite greetings, often offered as
condolences after a
death.
- The mourners paid their last respects to the deceased poet.
- a particular aspect
of something
- With respect to his personal hygiene, I suggest that he shower more often.
Synonyms
Related terms
Translations
admiration for a person or entity because of
perceived merit
- Arabic:
- Chinese: 尊重 (zūnzhòng)
- Czech: respekt, úcta
- Dutch: respect, achting, eerbied
- Finnish: kunnioitus
- French: respect
- German: Achtung, Respekt
- Greek: σεβασμός (sevasmós)
- Hungarian: vonatkozás
- Italian: rispetto
- Japanese: 尊敬 (そんけい, sonkei)
- Korean: 존중 (jonjung)
- Kurdish:
- Lithuanian: pagarba
- Polish: respekt, szacunek
- Portuguese: respeito
- Romanian: respect
- Russian: уважение
- Spanish: respecto
- Swedish: respekt , aktning
- Telugu: గౌరవం (gauravam)
- Welsh: parch
tolerance
- Czech: ohled
- Finnish: kunnioitus
- French: tolérance
- German: Respekt
- Greek: σεβασμός (sevasmós)
- Portuguese: tolerância
Polite greetings
- Greek: σέβη (sevι)
- Kurdish:
- Portuguese: respeito , reverência
a particular aspect of something
- Czech: hledisko
- Portuguese: respeito
Verb
- to have respect for.
- She is an intellectual giant, and I respect her greatly.
- to have regard for the rights of others.
- I respect your right to hold this belief although I think it is nonsense.
- to consent to abide by an agreement.
- They failed to respect the treaty they had signed, and invaded.
Antonyms
Usage notes
It is possible that a confusion between the different meanings of respect affects the attitudes of people and organizations. For example, freedom of religion implies that we must respect the right of anyone to believe whatever they wish, to act within the law in accordance with their beliefs, and not to be discriminated against on account of their beliefs. However, the use of the word respect seems to have shifted our attitudes towards the quite different notion that we must behave respectfully towards their beliefs, and not criticise them. This is a restriction on freedom of speech, and is inherently hypocritical—anyone with any view on religion must necessarily believe that those who believe differently are deluded, although their rights must be respected.The distinction between the two meanings can be
shown by paraphrasing Voltaire: "I totally disrespect what you say,
but absolutely respect your right to say it."
Derived terms
Translations
to have respect for
- Czech: respektovat
- Finnish: kunnioittaa
- German: respektieren
- Greek: σέβομαι
- Hebrew: לכבד [leHabed]
- Kurdish:
- Swedish: att ha respekt för
to have regard for the rights of others
- Czech: brát ohled
- Finnish: kunnioittaa
- German: respektieren
- Greek: σέβομαι
- Swedish: att respektera
to consent to abide by an agreement
- Czech: uznávat
- Finnish: kunnioittaa
- German: respektieren
- Swedish: att respektera
French
Pronunciation
Noun
fr-noun m- Respect.
Derived terms
Extensive Definition
Respectfulness is the concern for a harmonious
relationship with your family, friends and all other people in a
society, respect should be a natural response of politeness which can not be
demanded. The true identification of respectfulness values others
for who they represent, with a concern not to look down onto other
people. This results in the protection of someone else's personal
or common values, so that opinions and persuasions do not harm the
good intentions of someone else. Taking into consideration the
views and desires of others and incorporating it into your
decisions, i.e. being truthful to people. When you
respect another, you factor in and weigh others' thoughts and
desires into your planning and balance it into your decision
making.
An example would be: respecting someone's
opinion. You may or may not agree, but you place it into
consideration, and it may ultimately influence your decision (even
if partially).
In Asiatic philosophy does self-respect
and respecting others deserve to be respected, this is in the same
context as taking care of yourself and your environment.
Respectfulness adds general reliability to social
interactions, it helps people to get along with each other in
society.
Language related respect
Human languages typically portray grammatical
distinctions to the listener between honorific and colloquial language. These
distinctions may be grammatically encoded by a regular system of
verb and noun affixes. In Japan
for example, language is used to show respect between children and
parents or between between husband and wife. It is a part of
everyday life.
Human cultures have varied ways of showing you
respect by bodily actions. In many European cultures, people shake
hands. In others, such as in Japan people bow at
the waist when meeting.
Frequently, gender is a factor in how respect
is displayed in bodily behavior. For example, women in many Western
cultures traditionally curtsy, whereas men bow. The
21 gun salute (done within the military for funerals of military
members and for high ranking civilians,such as a president) is a
very respect-based procedure.
Mafia
The general theory behind the mafia (whether
fictional or non-fictional) is that most mafias in some form or
another revolve heavily around the theory of respect. Where the
hired men and those lower in the rank of the family are set to show
"respect" to the mafioso.
Street gangs
Street gang related respect is when someone shows
admiration due to either admiring views, status or possessions.
Respect in criminal related gangs is said to be gained from
achieving things that others would think as too dangerous or risky.
This is infact an act of false virtue and sets a bad
example to the majority of people and would often lead to long term
prison sentence. Just remember that crime doesn't pay, so better
think twice before any such actions.
Crimes of revenge
Both the U.S. and Great Britain have recently
experienced a surge in "disrespect shootings", where trivial social
violations lead to violence.
Commerce
Fair Trade http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_tradeMusic
Aretha Franklin's single: Respect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aretha_FranklinReferences
External links
- sep entry respect by Robin Dillon
respect in German: Respekt
respect in Spanish: Respeto
respect in French: Respect
respect in Dutch: Respect
respect in Norwegian: Respekt
respect in Portuguese: Respeito
respect in Slovak: Rešpekt
respect in Swedish: Respekt
respect in Tagalog: Paggalang
respect in Turkish: Saygı
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
Anschauung, OK, abide by, accept, acceptance, accord respect
to, accordance,
account, acquittal, acquittance, act up to,
adhere to, adherence,
admiration, admire, adoration, adore, advertence, advertency, affability, affect, agreeableness, alertness, allegiance, amenity, an in, angle, angle of vision, answer to,
apotheosize,
appertain to, applicability, application, apply to,
appositeness,
appreciate, appreciation, approbation, approval, approve, approve of, article, aspect, assiduity, assiduousness, assigned
task, attend to, attention, attention span,
attentiveness,
attribute, awareness, awe, basis, be faithful to, be
thoughtful of, bear on, bear upon, bearing, belong to, best wishes,
bless, blessing, bounden duty,
burden, business, call of duty,
care, carrying out,
case, characteristic, charge, civility, comity, commitment, comparison, complaisance, compliance, compliments, comply with,
concentration,
concern, concernment, configuration, conform to,
conformance,
conformity, connect, connection, consciousness, consider, considerateness,
consideration,
correspond to, count,
countenance,
courteousness,
courtesy, credit, datum, deal with, dedication, defer to,
deference, deify, detail, devoir, devoirs, devotion, diligence, discharge, do justice to,
duties and responsibilities, duty, ear, earnestness, effect, eidolon, element, endorse, endorsement, entertain
respect for, espial,
espionage, esteem, estimation, ethics, etiquette, exalt, execution, eye, facet, fact, factor, fashion, favor, favorable regard, favorable
vote, fealty, fear, feature, fellow feeling,
figure, fill, follow, footing, form, frame of reference, framework, friendly relations,
fulfill, fulfillment, germaneness, gestalt, good graces, good
terms, good understanding, good wishes, goodwill, gracefulness, graciousness, greetings, guise, harmony, have connection with,
have regard for, heed,
heedfulness,
heeding, hero-worship,
hold by, hold in esteem, hold in reverence, hold with, homage, honor, idolize, image, imago, imperative, impression, incidental, instance, intentiveness, intentness, interest, involve, item, keep, keep faith with, keep in
countenance, keeping,
liaise with, light,
likeness, line of duty,
lineaments, link
with, live up to, look,
look up to, looking,
lookout, loyalty, make good, manner, materiality, matter, meet, mental outlook, mindfulness, minor detail,
minutia, minutiae, mission, must, mutual regard, nod, note, notice, obey, obligation, observance, observation, observe, onus, ought, outlook, particular, pay attention to,
pay homage to, performance, pertain to,
pertinence, phase, phasis, place, point, point of view, politeness, position, practice, prize, property, quality, rapport, refer to, reference, reference system,
regard, regardfulness, regards, relate to, relatedness, relation, relevance, remark, respectfulness, respects, revere, reverence, salutations, sanction, satisfaction, satisfy, seal of approval,
seeming, self-imposed
duty, semblance,
shape, side, sight, simulacrum, situation, slant, solicitousness, solicitude, spying, stamp of approval,
stand, standpoint, style, sympathy, system, tact, tactfulness, take kindly to,
thing, think highly of,
think much of, think of, think well of, thought, thoughtfulness, tie in
with, total effect, touch,
touch upon, trait, treat
of, twist, universe, uphold, urbanity, value, venerate, veneration, view, view with favor, viewing, viewpoint, voice, vote, watch, watching, wise, witnessing, worship, worth, yea, yea
vote