ethos UK /ˈiːθɒs/US /ˈiθɑs/ noun3 •The character or fundamental values of a person, people, culture, or movement.Through all their projects, their abiding ethos has been observing and responding to the site and its existing ecology and growth patterns. — 2026 •The traits in a work of art which express the ideal or typic character, as influenced by the ethos (character or fundamental values) of a people, rather than emotional situations or individual character traits in a narrow sense; opposed to pathos. •(rhetoric) A form of rhetoric in which the writer or speaker invokes their authority, competence or expertise in an attempt to persuade others that their view is correct. formsethe · ethea · ethoi · ethoses