What's the difference between decency and propriety?

Decency


Definition:

  • (n.) The quality or state of being decent, suitable, or becoming, in words or behavior; propriety of form in social intercourse, in actions, or in discourse; proper formality; becoming ceremony; seemliness; hence, freedom from obscenity or indecorum; modesty.
  • (n.) That which is proper or becoming.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) This is not some sophisticated, Westminstery battle, but a life-and-death, misery-or-decency choice about the very basics of life for hundreds of thousands of older British people.
  • (2) "Throughout America, the Queen stands for decency and civility."
  • (3) Yes, Goldsmith is to be held in contempt: a man of decency would have rejected this gutter strategy.
  • (4) "Sir Alex Ferguson had the decency to phone me to let me know that he was going in another direction after I applied for the reserve team post at Manchester United in 2003.
  • (5) As Obama put it in her speech today, this isn’t about politics, “it’s about basic human decency”.
  • (6) Having been born in Belgium he didn't start from a belief in the inferiority of other countries, but he loved Britain for the security it offered his family and the gentle decency of our nation."
  • (7) She is talking to Dizzee Rascal, who at least has the decency to goon around for the camera.
  • (8) If Whittingdale had any honour, any mercy, and any basic human decency, he would murder David Attenborough himself today, in his bed, to spare him any further suffering.
  • (9) But we can all probably do without Fifa's "fair play in marketing" lectures, which clothe commercial ruthlessness in the language of sporting decency, apparently oblivious to the impression given by wallpapering every stadium with signs that push BP or declare "We proudly accept only Visa".
  • (10) Neither the Congress nor evaluators have clear concepts of what constitutes a life of decency and dignity for the chronically dependent.
  • (11) At 6ft 3in tall, the lanky Peck was a pillar of moral rectitude standing up for decency and tolerance.
  • (12) Austerity as we know it – where basic human decency is sacrificed to solutions that purport to be cheaper but turn out not to be – actually started before the austerity narrative.
  • (13) Decency is one of those lines.” Erickson also told reporters: “I don’t want to put words in [Trump’s] mouth and I hate using the label misogynist because I think its used too much but he’s suggesting a woman as a lady asked him a question and did so because it was her time of the month.
  • (14) I hope David Cameron has the decency to invite you around for coffee or lunch as Tony Blair and David Blunkett did once I was out.
  • (15) A former director general of the prison service, Martin Narey, who now has a contract with the firm as a consultant on decency in G4S prisons, says he was once vehemently opposed to private-sector involvement in the prison service before he was appointed in 1998.
  • (16) Few would challenge the Camerons' fundamental decency.
  • (17) Looking first at the smaller politics, the attack by Fallon on Miliband’s decency and fitness for No 10 was a risky play by the Tories.
  • (18) In Uncommon Danger, the representatives of communism and what Zaleshoff calls "moderate radicalism" but Kenton himself would probably think of as basic human decency are pitted against the agents of capital and fascism: Balterghen, Saridza and their many cronies.
  • (19) But the depth of this tragedy also drew out the decency and determination of our nation.
  • (20) Fry wrote: "I gather a repulsive nobody writing in a paper no one of any decency would be seen dead with has written something loathsome and inhumane.

Propriety


Definition:

  • (n.) Individual right to hold property; ownership by personal title; property.
  • (n.) That which is proper or peculiar; an inherent property or quality; peculiarity.
  • (n.) The quality or state of being proper; suitableness to an acknowledged or correct standard or rule; consonance with established principles, rules, or customs; fitness; appropriateness; as, propriety of behavior, language, manners, etc.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) While ruling that there had been improper use of Schedule 7 powers, the judge commented: "It was clear that the Security Service, for entirely understandable reasons, was anxious if possible to get information which could not be regarded as tainted by torture allegations or which might confirm the propriety of a control order."
  • (2) These results, as well as our considerations regarding the latent time between therapy and lung reaction, and some trials on laboratory rodents allow to speak of a radiogenic pneumopathy with the proprieties of a late reaction characterized by a pneumonitis appearing previously and changing into pulmonary fibrosis.
  • (3) But when that verdict is given, it should be recalled that, after a shaky start, parliament gave the matter due and dutiful consideration; that it fulfilled its constitutional function properly and, for the most part, with civil propriety.
  • (4) And this is the mainspring of so many of his stories, novellas, and his one novel, Beware of Pity : the clash between propriety and desire.
  • (5) There was no way the Bush administration would want independent auditors to publish a report into the financial propriety of its Iraqi administration while the CPA was still in existence and Bremer at its head still answerable to the press.
  • (6) Saying that he did not know more about the data destruction beyond what has been reported, Earnest said it was "hard for me to evaluate the propriety of that."
  • (7) But is it really so bad that Lydia refuses to conform to the strict and suffocating conventions of female propriety?
  • (8) Additionally, non-parametric methods were applied to these data in an effort to confirm the propriety of the model.
  • (9) McElroy and Webb had raised questions about the legal propriety of the federation's "No 2" accounts, which are said to contain £35m held by most of the 43 regional federation chiefs.
  • (10) An examination was made of the propriety of the existing legal provision on permissible threshold limit, of 37 degrees C in the coal mine in Japan.
  • (11) No black man could be elected with Trump’s life story (what levels of personal propriety a black woman would have to attain to be taken seriously don’t bear thinking about).
  • (12) The absorption spectra of the ethanol extracts of the pigment in each group were similar and this result supported propriety of the classification by biological characteristics.
  • (13) But this is not only a question of parliamentary propriety.
  • (14) Through these new reporting methods, communications providers will be permitted to disclose more information than ever before to their customers.” The new arrangement addresses a major grievance held by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook and LinkedIn, which all joined a coalition called Reform Government Surveillance in order to pressure the administration into reassuring their customers about the propriety and legality of giving vast amounts of data to the NSA, FBI and other government agencies.
  • (15) Certainly, compared with the chaos surrounding the search for a new chair of the BBC Trust, the Ofsted appointment is a model of propriety.
  • (16) Finally, in the light of present day litigious trends, the question of the propriety of the policy is posed.
  • (17) That didn't seem to me to be an answer, since Trintignant is not talking about a bedside visit but about the propriety of making a spectacle out of decay and death.
  • (18) In the letter, Hays said that he was not consulted by the chapel staff on the plan and that there are “serious questions about the wisdom and propriety” of allowing the Adhan from the chapel tower, as the chapel “maintains an explicit Christian identity and mission”; he argued that “Christianity and Islam stand in significant theological tension with one another,” and that there would be “global repercussions” to allowing the Adhan to be broadcast from the chapel tower.
  • (19) He also appeared to be launching his threatened "tsunami" on Fifa, making a string of claims against the Fifa president's propriety.
  • (20) Although there is still further material to be checked, I am already clear that there are areas where the current guidance on propriety and the management of Ministerial Private Offices needs to be strengthened.