Meaning of respect in English

respect

noun

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/rɪˈspekt/ us

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/rɪˈspekt/

respect noun (ADMIRATION)

B1 [ U ]

admiration felt or shown for someone or something that you believe has good ideas or qualities:

I have great/the greatest respect for his ideas, although I don't agree with them.

She is a formidable figure who commands a great deal of respect (= who is greatly admired by others).

New teachers have to earn/gain the respect of their students.

See also

self-respect

More examples

He inspired respect and devotion from his pupils.
She won the grudging respect of her boss.
You should show more respect to your parents.
He has no respect for authority whatsoever.
Certainly in our society teachers don't enjoy the respect that is accorded to doctors and lawyers.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Showing respect and admiration

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respect noun (HONOUR)

B1 [ U ]

politeness, honour, and care shown towards someone or something that is considered important:

You really should treat your parents with more respect.

She has no respect for other people's property (= she does not treat it carefully).

[ U ]

a feeling that something is right or important and you should not attempt to change it or harm it:

In their senseless killing of innocent people, the terrorists have shown their lack of respect for human life.

She grumbled that young people today have/show no respect for the law.

[ U ]

the feeling you show when you accept that different customs or cultures are different from your own and behave towards them in a way that would not cause offence:

She teaches the students to have respect for different races and appreciate the diversity of other cultures.

sb's respects formal

polite formal greetings:

Please convey/give my respects to your parents.

More examples

These days it goes against the grain to show respect for authority.
Certainly in our society teachers don't enjoy the respect that is accorded to doctors and lawyers.
Children need to be taught to have respect for other people's property.
He has no respect for authority whatsoever.
You should show your parents more respect.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Polite and respectful

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Accepting & agreeing

Meeting people

respect noun (FEATURE)

B2 [ C ]

a particular feature or detail:

This proposal differs from the last one in many important respects/one important respect.

In most respects, the new film is better than the original.

More examples

The new version is worse in every respect - I much preferred the original.
It is arguable that the government has failed in this respect.
His theory is deficient in several respects.
It's essentially a dictionary but it differs in one or two respects.
While I accept that he's not perfect in many respects, I do actually quite like the man.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Conditions and characteristics

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Idioms

in respect of sth
pay your respects
with (all due) respect

respect

verb [ T ]

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/rɪˈspekt/ us

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/rɪˈspekt/

respect verb [T] (ADMIRE)

to feel or show admiration for someone or something that you believe has good ideas or qualities:

I deeply respect David for what he has achieved.

Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples

to admire someone or something

admireI've always admired her for her generous spirit.
respectI respect her for what she has achieved, but I would have approached it very differently.
think highly ofEveryone thinks highly of him.
hold someone in high esteemHer colleagues in Washington hold her in very high esteem.
hold someone in high regardHe contributed much to the life of York, and was held in high regard there.
look up toShe was my older sister and I looked up to her.

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respect yourself

to be proud of your own qualities or achievements

More examples

It was a sane decision and one we all respected.
All non-violent religious and political beliefs should be respected equally.
Visitors are asked to respect the rules of the organization.
We must respect the rights of sovereign nations to conduct their own affairs.
David was brought up to respect authority.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Showing respect and admiration

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Confidence & self-assurance

respect verb [T] (HONOUR)

to treat something or someone with kindness and care:

to respect someone's feelings

We should respect the environment and not pollute it.

to accept the importance of someone's rights or customs and to do nothing that would harm them or cause offence:

The agreement will respect the rights of both nations.

I would appreciate it if you would respect my privacy.

to accept that something is right or important and not to attempt to change it or harm it:

The president pledged to respect the existing frontiers between the two countries.

to think that it is important to obey a law or rule:

I was always taught to respect the law.

respect sb's wishes

to do what someone has asked to have done:

His children respected his last wishes and held a simple funeral for him.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Treating someone well

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Accepting & agreeing

Obeying & breaking the law

(Definition of respect from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

respect | American Dictionary

respect

noun

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/rɪˈspekt/

respect noun (ADMIRATION)

[ U ]

admiration for someone or something that you believe has good ideas or qualities:

I believe people had more respect for teachers back then.

respect noun (POLITE ATTITUDE)

[ U ]

the polite attitude shown toward someone or something that you consider important:

Some drivers don’t have any respect for other motorists.

[ U ]

Respects are polite expressions of greeting or sympathy:

[ pl ] Give my respects to your parents.

[ pl ] We stopped by the funeral home to pay our respects.

respect noun (FEATURE)

[ C ]

a particular feature or detail:

In some respects, I had to admit, I had behaved foolishly.

respectful

adjective us

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/rɪˈspekt·fəl/

The protestors were respectful and polite.

respectfully

adverb us

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/rɪˈspekt·fə·li/

Most old acquaintances address him respectfully as "Governor."

respect

verb [ T ]

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/rɪˈspekt/

respect verb [T] (ADMIRATION)

to admire an ability or good quality, or to admire someone for the ability or qualities that person has:

While I respected his deep knowledge of American history, he wasn’t a very effective teacher.

(Definition of respect from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

respect | Business English

respect

noun [ U ]

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/rɪˈspekt/ us

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in respect of

(also with respect to)

in connection with something:

Legislation will be introduced in respect of the proposals in the Finance Bill.

FINANCE

in order to pay for something:

I have arranged a bank transfer in respect of your invoice for January.

(Definition of respect from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of respect

respect

Qualitative and quantitative measures of the business environment are statistically strongly and significantly correlated with respect to their effects on business performance (ibid.).

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Thus, there is a qualitative difference between the outcome of language contact with respect to at least one point: the past participles.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

More examples Fewer examples

This implies that a weak solution is physically relevant with respect to both models at the same time.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The generating extension takes the values classified as static as parameters and returns the source program specialized with respect to these values.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Note that (2.19)is trivially satisfied a t i = 1, and thus it must be replaced with its derivative with respect to arclength.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The problem remains with respect to (6b) though.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The opposite direction of this implication, that is, the completeness of the logical relations with respect to contextual equivalence remains future work.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The stress of the developmental transition to young adulthood may, in par t, be defined with respect to new roles.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In this respect the building's technical failings have disappointed the client and many users.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The authors' grading scheme is telling in this respect.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Patients assigned to the ' generalized eating disorder ' cluster were rated as having more severe symptoms in almost every respect except weight.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

If they are reasons to respect one's children, then they apply only to people who have children.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In other respects, however, the data are less than convincing and do not allow a straightforward inter pretation.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

According to this view one tends to perceive selfmotion primarily with respect to a visual reference frame.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

They all gained some position of status, never mind how, sufficient to win the respect of the general public.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.