arete
/ˈæɹɪtiː/noun
arete is a noun meaning “excellence, goodness; virtue” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled A-R-E-T-E, and it appears about once in every 12 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of arete is arêtes or aretes.
What does arete mean?
noun
- 1
excellence, goodness; virtue.
All arete is included in justice, Cyrnus.
- 2
The proper state or condition for a human.
- 3
Alternative spelling of arête.
noun
- 1
A very thin ridge of rock.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce arete?
- /ˈæɹɪtiː/
- /ˈɑɹɪteɪ/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of arete
- arêtes plural
- aretes plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is arete?
Arete appears about once in every 12 million words in written English, the 103,949th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Arete in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does arete come from?
From Ancient Greek ἀρετή (aretḗ).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).