Moral or morale?
moral is an adjective meaning “Of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behaviour, especially…”; morale is a noun meaning “The mental and emotional state of a person or group, especially their level of…”. Use moral as an adjective and morale as a noun (moral is also a noun: “The ethical significance or practical lesson”). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) moral is about 6.3 times as common as morale.
What is the difference between moral and morale?
| moral | morale | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun, verb | noun |
| Meaning | Of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behaviour, especially conforming to principles of rectitude Conforming to a given standard of right behaviour The ethical significance or practical lesson | The mental and emotional state of a person or group, especially their level of confidence, enthusiasm, and loyalty with regard to a function or task |
| Example | moral judgments; a moral poem | After the layoffs, morale was at an all time low; the staff were so dispirited nothing was getting done |
| Forms | none | morales |
| Pronunciation | /ˈmɒɹəl/ /ˈmɔɹəl/ /ˈmɒɾəl/ | /məˈɹɑːl/ /məˈɹæl/ |
| In writing | 29 times per million words | 4.6 times per million words |
Sources: moral and morale in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of moral and morale
moral
- 1
Of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behaviour, especially conforming to principles of rectitude
moral judgments; a moral poem
- 2
The ethical significance or practical lesson
The moral of The Boy Who Cried Wolf is that if you repeatedly lie, people won't believe you when you tell the truth
- 3
To moralize
- 4
Conforming to a given standard of right behaviour
a moral action
- 5
Moral practices or teachings: modes of conduct
a candidate with strong morals
- 6
Being sanctioned by or operative on one's conscience or ethical judgment
- 7
A depiction of good or heroic actions
- 8
Capable of right and wrong action
a moral agent
morale
- 1
The mental and emotional state of a person or group, especially their level of confidence, enthusiasm, and loyalty with regard to a function or task
After the layoffs, morale was at an all time low; the staff were so dispirited nothing was getting done
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, moral or morale?
moral appears 29 times per million words; morale 4.6 times per million words.
moral 29 times per million wordsmorale 4.6 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search moral vs morale?
“moral vs morale” is searched about 2,900 times a month on Google and 230 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“morale vs moral”, “moral or morale”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.