arete

Both poems celebrated arete – a Greek virtue which can be translated in English as “excellence” and “success,” but must be understood as a moral characteristic as much as a physical or mental one.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2020

This funky goop, called gloios and thought to contain the essence of arete — valor, excellence — was often funneled into small vials and sold at gyms for medicinal purposes.

From New York Times ● Jul. 22, 2016

In doing so, they sacrifice the wallet’s core virtue—what Plato would have called its arete.

From Slate ● Feb. 19, 2015

“The themes of Walt’s need to express his excellence — arete — has been there from the beginning,” Cyrino said.

From Forbes ● Sep. 28, 2013

From this point the route angled steeply upward along a graceful arete of wind-compacted snow that culminated in the South Summit—where I arrived at 11:00 to find a second, even worse bottleneck.

From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer

Far below, fast-flowing meltwater cuts a frozen ravine into the glacier; above, on the horizon, the Grandes Jorasses arête, a narrow ridge of rock that separates two valleys, soars with terrifying verticality.

From National Geographic ● Apr. 16, 2023

To determine the arête, or excellence, of something, you have to know what its purpose or function is.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 15, 2022

For example, the purpose of a knife is to cut things, so its arête is sharpness.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 15, 2022

In ancient Greek, the word for virtue was arête, which can also be translated as “excellence.”

From Textbooks ● Jun. 15, 2022

Starting from the hut at daylight, we reached at an early hour the summit of the ‘shoulder,’ and then traversed its arête to the final peak of the Matterhorn.

From The Ascent of the Matterhorn by Edward Whymper