what does ethos mean

Ethos means the character, values, or credibility that define a person, group, or message.

Core meaning

• In everyday use, ethos is the set of guiding beliefs or moral nature of a person, group, or institution, like a company’s culture or a movement’s values.

• The word comes from Greek for “character” and is closely related to “ethics,” which deals with what is right and wrong.

In rhetoric and persuasion

• In communication, ethos is a persuasive appeal based on the speaker’s or writer’s credibility, authority, and trustworthiness.

• When someone highlights their expertise, experience, or good character to make you more likely to believe them, they are using ethos.

• Ethos is one of the three classic persuasive modes, alongside pathos (appeal to emotion) and logos (appeal to logic).

Simple example

• A doctor giving health advice and mentioning years of medical training is using ethos to make their argument more convincing.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.