Meaning & use
integrity
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Meanings
noununcountable
Honesty and a firm commitment to doing what is right, even when it costs you.
Grammar: No plural: a person of integrity.
Patterns
- a person of integrity
- with integrity
The judge was known for her integrity.
He lost the job rather than give up his integrity.
They run the business with integrity.
noununcountabletechnical
The state of being whole, sound and not broken or damaged.
Grammar: Often with of: the integrity of the structure.
Patterns
- the integrity of something
Engineers checked the structural integrity of the bridge.
Hackers threatened the integrity of the data.
Common combinations
- personal integrity
- She values personal integrity above profit.
- question someone's integrity
- The report questions the mayor's integrity.
- structural integrity
- The storm damaged the building's structural integrity.
- maintain integrity
- The team must maintain integrity in its research.
- data integrity
- Backups protect data integrity.
Synonyms and how they differ
- honesty
- Honesty is telling the truth, whereas integrity includes acting on principles consistently.
- principles
- Principles are the beliefs themselves, where integrity is living by them.
- wholeness
- Wholeness is the physical sense only.
- uprightness
- Uprightness is more old-fashioned and formal.
Opposites
Word family
- integral adjective
- essential as part of a whole
- integrate verb
- combine parts into a whole
- integrated adjective
- combined into one
Commonly confused: integrity or integrity vs. integration?
integrity vs integrity vs. integration
Integration is combining parts or groups; integrity is honesty or soundness.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'integrity' in its moral meaning?
Choose one answer.
Only the second sentence is about principled honesty. The others refer to physical or data soundness.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “integrity”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.