Honour or honor, is the evaluation of a person’s trustworthiness and social status based on that individual's espousals and actions. 

Honour is deemed exactly what determines a person's character: whether or not the person reflects honesty, respect, integrity, or fairness.

Accordingly, individuals are assigned worth and stature based on the harmony of their actions, code of honour, and that of the society at large.

Honour can be analysed as a relativistic concept, i.e., conflicts between individuals and even cultures arising as a consequence of material circumstance and ambition, rather than fundamental differences in principle. 

Alternatively, honor can be viewed as nativist — that honour is as real to the human condition as love, and likewise derives from the formative personal bonds that establish one's personal dignity and character.

Dr Samuel Johnson, in his A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), defined honour as having several senses, the first of which was "nobility of soul, magnanimity, and a scorn of meanness." 

This sort of honour derives from the perceived virtuous conduct and personal integrity of the person endowed with it. 

Dr Samuel Johnson also defined honour in relationship to "reputation" and "fame"; to "privileges of rank or birth", and as "respect" of the kind which "places an individual socially and determines his right to precedence." 

This sort of honour is not so much a function of moral or ethical excellence, as it is a consequence of power. Finally, with respect to women, honour may be synonymous with "chastity" or "virginity".

Traditionally, in Western society, honour figured largely as a guiding principle. 


In Western society a man's honour, that of his wife, his blood family or his beloved, formed an all-important issue: the archetypal "man of honour" remained ever alert for any insult, actual or suspected: for either would impugn his honour.

The concept of honour appears to have declined in importance in the modern secular West.

Popular stereotypes would have it surviving more definitively in alleged "hot-blooded" cultures (Italian, Persian, Arab, Iberian, etc.) or in more "gentlemanly" societies (like the "Old South" of Dixie). 

Feudal or other agrarian societies, which focus upon land use and land ownership, may tend to "honour" more than do deracinated industrial societies. 

An emphasis on the importance of honour exists in such institutions as the military (officers may conduct a court of honour) and in organisations with a military ethos, such as Scouting organisations.

"Honour" in the case of females is frequently related, historically, to sexuality: preservation of "honour" equated primarily to maintenance of virginity of unattached women and to the exclusive monogamy of the remainder. One can speculate that feminism has changed some linguistic usage in this respect.

Conceptions of honour vary widely between cultures; in some cultures, honour killing of (mostly female) members of one's own family are considered justified if the individuals have "defiled the family's honour" by marrying against the family's wishes, or even by being the victims of rape. 

These honour killings are generally seen in the West as a way of men using the culture of honour to control female sexuality.

One can contrast cultures of honour with cultures of law. 

In a culture of law there is a body of laws which must be obeyed by all, with punishments for transgressors. 

A culture of law requires a society with the structures required to enact and enforce laws. 

A culture of law incorporates an unwritten social contract: members of society agree to give up most of their rights to defend themselves and retaliate for injuries, on the understanding that transgressors will be apprehended and punished by society.

From the viewpoint of anthropology, cultures of honour typically appear among nomadic peoples and herdsmen who carry their most valuable property with them and risk having it stolen, without having recourse to law enforcement or government.

In this situation, inspiring fear forms a better strategy than promoting friendship; and cultivating a reputation for swift and disproportionate revenge increases the safety of one's person and property.

Thinkers ranging from Montesquieu to Steven Pinker have remarked upon the mindset needed for a culture of honour.

Cultures of honour therefore appear among the Bedouins, Scottish and English herdsmen of the border country, and many similar peoples, who have little allegiance to a national government; among cowboys, frontiersmen, and ranchers of the American West, where official law-enforcement often remained out of reach, as is famously celebrated in Westerns; among the plantation culture of the American South, and among aristocrats, who enjoy hereditary privileges that put them beyond the reach of codes of law. 

Cultures of honour also flourish in criminal underworlds and gangs, whose members carry large amounts of cash and contraband and cannot complain to the law if it is stolen.

Once a culture of honour exists, it is difficult for its members to make the transition to a culture of law; this requires that people become willing to back down and refuse to immediately retaliate, and from the viewpoint of the culture of honour, this tends to appear to be an unwise act reflecting weakness.

In contemporary international relations, the concept of "credibility" resembles that of honour, as when the credibility of a state or of an alliance appears to be at stake, and honour-bound politicians call for drastic measures.

Compare the concepts of integrity, face (social custom) in stereotyped East Asian cultures, or of mana in Polynesian society.

The ancient Greek concepts of honour included not only the exaltation of the one receiving honour, but also the shaming of the one overcome by the act of hubris. This concept of honour is akin to a zero-sum game.

As for East Asia, there are a few words more to say. First of all, in lands such as Japan, honour was always seen as an almost-duty (by Samurai, but also the common citizenry). When you lost your honour or the situation made you lose it, there was only one way to save your dignity: death. Seppuku (vulgarly called "harakiri," or "belly-cutting") was the most honourable death in that situation. The only way for a Samurai to die more honourably was to be killed in a battle by a sword. Today, people in Japan, and Tahiti, hold on to their dignity and don't want their honour to be lost.Yet there are others who still stick to old Eastern values, even in a Western world.


An honor code or honor system is a set of rules or principles governing a community based on a set of rules or ideals that define what constitutes honorable behavior within that community. The use of an honor code depends on the idea that people (at least within the community) can be trusted to act honorably. Those who are in violation of the honor code can be subject to various sanctions, including expulsion from the institution. Honor codes are most commonly used in the United States to deter academic dishonesty.

Warrior code is an ethical code followed by warriors, often those that were privileged by birth, belonging to nobility or another superior caste to preserve their honor. Common virtues in warrior code are mercy, courage and loyalty.

Some historical warrior codes are chivalry, followed by Christian knights in Europe; Dharma, followed by the Hindu Kshatriyas; bushido, followed by Japanese samurai; and xiá in China.

Excellence is the state or quality of excelling. It is superiority, or the state of being good to a high degree. Excellence is considered to be a value by many organizations, in particular by schools and other institutions of education[1], and a goal to be pursued.