Moral vs. Morale

How to use "moral" and "morale" correctly

This is an entry on my list of Common Errors in English Usage. Visit the main page for direct links to additional entries.

If you want a word having to do with right and wrong or with a story’s lesson, use moral; if you want to refer to the mental or emotional state of a person or group, use morale:

the moral of the story
moral principles

soldiers suffered from low morale
camaraderie improved their morale

Related Resources

Common Errors in English Usage: Errors in diction and idiom commonly made by native speakers of English

List of Common Errors in English Usage (PDF): Printable version of the complete list

Common Grammar Errors: A list of common errors in grammar (topics like subject-verb agreement and parallelism) as distinct from usage

List of Common Errors in English Usage: PDF version