Respect Definition: What It Means to Respect Someone

Respect definition, sense by sense

Someone asking "what is the definition of respect" is normally after one of five senses:

1. Admiration for a quality or achievement. You respect a chess player for her skill or a doctor for years of hard work. This kind of respect is earned.
2. Basic courtesy toward any person. Speaking politely, listening, not mocking. Many people believe everyone deserves this, whatever their rank. It is closely tied to dignity.
3. Accepting a limit or a wish. To respect someone's privacy, boundaries or choice means you do not push past it, even if you disagree.
4. Obeying or honouring a rule. Drivers who respect a red light, or teams that respect a deadline, treat the rule as binding.
5. A detail or aspect, in the phrases in this respect and in some respects: "The plan is good in one respect: it is cheap."

Plural respects also means polite greetings, as in "pay your respects" at a funeral or "give my respects to your parents".

Examples in real sentences

• I do not agree with my manager on everything, but I respect how fairly she runs meetings.
• Please respect the library rule and keep your phone on silent.
• The young striker earned the respect of older players by training harder than anyone.
• In one respect the old flat was better: it was ten minutes from the station.
• We went to the family's home to pay our respects after the funeral.

Grammar: respect as noun and verb

As a noun, respect is uncountable in its main senses: you have respect for someone, show respect, earn or lose respect, and treat people with respect. Common pairings include mutual respect, deep respect, self-respect and a lack of respect.

As a verb it takes a direct object: respect someone, respect a decision, respect the law. The passive is common too: "He is widely respected in the field."

Three related adjectives are easy to mix up:

• Respectful: showing respect. "The crowd was respectful during the silence."
• Respectable: deserving respect, or socially proper. "a respectable score", "a respectable job".
• Respective: belonging to each one separately. "The players returned to their respective clubs." This has nothing to do with admiration.

How respect differs from esteem and tolerance

The opposite is disrespect (rude or dismissive treatment), and at its strongest, contempt, the feeling that someone is beneath you.

From Latin: a second look

Respect reached English in the late Middle Ages from Latin respectus, which comes from the verb respicere, "to look back at" or "to take notice of" (re-, back, and specere, to look). The same looking root appears in spectator, inspect and perspective.

The picture fits: to respect someone is to look again, and see them as worth your attention. The older sense of "regard" or "aspect" survives in phrases like with respect to and in every respect.

Earned respect and owed respect

A lot of everyday disagreement about respect comes from the two main senses being blended. One person says "respect must be earned", meaning admiration. Another says "everyone deserves respect", meaning courtesy. Each claim holds in its own sense, so you can be polite to a stranger while still waiting to see whether you admire them.

At work, respect often shows in small habits: being on time, crediting other people's ideas, and listening without interrupting. In families and schools across India and the US, it is also tied to age, so younger people may show it through forms of address or by letting elders decide first. Good manners differ by culture, but the idea underneath is the same.

Phrases built on respect

• With (all due) respect: a polite opener before disagreeing. "With respect, I think the figures are wrong." Said sharply, it can sound like the opposite of respect.
• With respect to / in respect of: about, concerning. Common in formal and business writing.
• Self-respect: refusing to drop your standards because you think you are worth more.
• Command respect: to be the kind of person others naturally respect.
• Respect your elders: a common family saying in many cultures.

Respect is often named alongside integrity and empathy as a core value in schools and workplaces. Browse similar values in our people and feelings.