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moral and morale

A moral is the lesson learnt from a story.

Moral is an adjective meaning ethical or virtuous.

Morals are the standards someone adopts to determine right from wrong.

Morale means mental or emotional state (e.g., spirit or attitude).

Moral or Morale

The words moral and morale look and sound similar, but their meanings are quite different.

With the stress on the first syllable, moral rhymes with coral (as in coral reef).

With the stress on the second syllable, morale rhymes with corral. (Corral means to round up as in to corral the sheep).

Moral

As a noun, a moral is the lesson learnt from a story (e.g., the moral of the story is don't drink and drive).

The plural, morals, usually conveys a different meaning. Morals are the standards that people adopt to differentiate between acceptable (or good) behaviour and unacceptable (or bad) behaviour.

As an adjective, moral means ethical or virtuous.

For example:

Morale

As a noun, morale means mental or emotional state. It often refers to someone's spirit or attitude.

For example:

A Quick Test

A LITTLE TRICK TO REMEMBER MORALE 

Let the ale of morale remind you that morale refers to spirit (or state of mental wellbeing).


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See Also

Immoral and amoral What are nouns? What are verbs? List of easily confused words