virtue

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
virtue /ˈvəːtjuː, -tʃuː/

▶noun

• 1 behaviour showing high moral standards.

  ■ a quality considered morally good or desirable.

  ■ a good or useful quality of a thing.

• 2 archaic virginity or chastity.

– phrases
by (or in) virtue of because or as a result of.
make a virtue of derive benefit or advantage from submitting to (something unwelcome).

– derivatives
virtueless adjective.

– origin ME: from OFr. vertu, from L. virtus ‘valour, merit, moral perfection’, from vir ‘man’.