Integrity means firm adherence to a moral or ethical code (pronounced in-TEG-ri-tee /ɪnˈtɛɡrəti/), honesty and uprightness combined with incorruptibility. In a second, closely related sense it means the state of being whole, sound, and undivided, and both senses trace back to a single idea of wholeness.
What does integrity mean?
Integrity is a noun with two main senses. The moral sense describes a person’s character: doing the right thing consistently, keeping one’s principles even when it is difficult or costly, and being honest and dependable. Someone with integrity acts the same whether or not anyone is watching, which is why the word implies reliability as much as honesty. The second sense is about wholeness: the condition of being complete, unbroken, and sound. This is the meaning in phrases like structural integrity, the strength and soundness of a building, or data integrity, the accuracy and completeness of stored information.
Where does integrity come from?
The word comes from the Latin integritas, meaning soundness, wholeness, or completeness, which derives from integer, whole or intact, literally untouched, from in- (not) plus the root of tangere (to touch). The sense of wholeness or perfect condition is recorded in English from the mid-15th century, and the moral sense, soundness of moral principle and uprightness in truth and fair dealing, is attested by the 1540s. The same Latin root gives us integer, the mathematical whole number, which is why integrity can be understood as a kind of wholeness of character, undivided and complete.
How is integrity used?
Integrity is a positive, respected word used in everyday, professional, ethical, and technical contexts. In talk about character and leadership it is high praise: describing someone as having integrity means they are trustworthy and principled. Organizations write it into value statements and codes of conduct, and it appears often in discussions of research integrity, academic integrity, and journalistic integrity. In engineering, computing, and science it is a neutral technical term about soundness, as in the integrity of a system, a signal, or a dataset. The two senses share the underlying idea of wholeness.
Integrity and the integer connection
Because integrity and integer come from the same root meaning whole, the moral sense can be pictured as being a whole, undivided person, someone whose actions and stated values line up. That image of internal consistency is central to how the word is used about character.
Example sentences
- She is respected for her honesty and integrity.
- Acting with integrity sometimes means losing in the short term.
- Engineers checked the structural integrity of the bridge.
- Encryption helps protect the integrity of the data.
- The scandal called the company’s integrity into question.
- He kept his integrity even under pressure to cut corners.
Related and confusable terms
For the moral sense, synonyms include honesty, uprightness, probity, honor, and rectitude; antonyms include corruption, dishonesty, and duplicity. For the wholeness sense, synonyms include soundness, unity, completeness, and cohesion; antonyms include damage and fragmentation. The word integrity is closely related to integer and integrate, all sharing the whole root. People sometimes treat integrity as a simple synonym for honesty, but it is broader, adding consistency of principle and wholeness of character.
Common misconceptions
A common misconception is that integrity means only telling the truth. Honesty is part of it, but integrity also implies consistency, keeping to one’s values across different situations and over time, even when no one is checking. Another misconception is treating the moral and structural senses as unrelated coincidences; in fact both descend from the same Latin idea of wholeness, one applied to character and the other to physical objects and systems.
Integrity in professional and technical contexts
Beyond personal character, integrity anchors several important professional and technical ideas. Academic integrity refers to honest scholarship, free of cheating and plagiarism, and is enforced by schools and universities through formal codes. Research integrity covers the honest design, conduct, and reporting of studies, while journalistic integrity concerns accuracy, fairness, and independence from improper influence. In computing and engineering, the wholeness sense dominates: data integrity means information stays accurate and unaltered from creation to use, and structural integrity means a physical structure can safely bear its loads. Security professionals treat integrity as one of the core goals of protecting information, alongside confidentiality and availability, ensuring that data is not tampered with. What unites these uses is the root idea of soundness and completeness, whether of a person’s principles, a dataset, or a bridge. Because so much depends on things being whole and trustworthy, integrity has become a keyword in ethics statements, safety standards, and technical specifications alike, carrying real weight rather than serving as vague praise.
The word carries genuine moral weight, which is why it appears so often in oaths, mottos, and mission statements. To say a person has integrity is to vouch for their whole character, not just one honest act, and to accuse someone of lacking it is a serious charge. That seriousness is worth respecting, because integrity is built slowly through consistent choices and can be lost quickly through a single betrayal of trust. Understanding both the moral and the wholeness senses helps readers see why the word is used for people, institutions, and even structures whenever soundness and trustworthiness are at stake.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does integrity mean?
Integrity means honesty and firm adherence to a moral or ethical code. It also means the state of being whole, sound, or undivided.
Where does the word integrity come from?
It comes from the Latin integritas, meaning wholeness or completeness, from integer, meaning whole or untouched.
Is integrity related to the word integer?
Yes. Both come from the Latin integer, meaning whole. Integrity is a wholeness of character, as an integer is a whole number.
What are the two meanings of integrity?
One is moral: honesty and uprightness. The other is physical or structural: being whole, sound, and undivided, as in data integrity.
How do you use integrity in a sentence?
For example, She is known for her integrity, or engineers tested the structural integrity of the bridge.
What is a synonym for integrity?
For the moral sense, honesty, uprightness, and probity. For the wholeness sense, soundness, unity, and completeness.