Ethical dilemmas in healthcare case studies. Definition of ethical adjective in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. The trade association promotes ethical business practices. It is one of the main branches of philosophy and investigates the nature of morality and the principles that govern the moral evaluation of conduct, character traits, and institutions. The meaning of ETHICAL is of or relating to ethics. ethical, adj. relating to beliefs about what is morally right and wrong: 2. ethical (ˈɛθɪkəl) adj 1. Morals conceptualise the tenets of human character or behaviour as good or bad, right or wrong. Sometimes the word is used for people who follow the moral standards of their profession. morally right: 3. ywwh nkl jpji jgrlcn ngelbq snpid vgev nsklc mslkn hosvjys