ISEE/SSAT Vocabulary BuilderWordsPpropriety
ISEE/SSAThard
propriety
Meaning: conformity to accepted standards of proper behavior
propriety in a sentence
How propriety is used in real sentences:
The ambassador questioned the propriety of discussing private negotiations in public.
Guests debated the propriety of wearing casual clothes to the solemn ceremony.
“When Mara first entered the valley, she worried less about ice than about propriety: the local council had permitted measurements, but only if her itinerant research team treated the site as ancestral ground rather than an outdoor laboratory.”
— from the passage The Moraine Calendar
Synonyms for propriety
Other words for propriety — decorum, decency and correctness — carry the same meaning.
- decorum
- decency
- correctness
Antonyms of propriety
Words that mean the opposite of propriety:
- impropriety
- indecency
- rudeness
Where it comes from
From Latin proprietas, meaning 'fitness or proper character.'
Memory hook
PROPRIETY begins like PROPER: it is the quality of behaving properly.