Part of Speech: Noun

Definition: Moral integrity

Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rectitude

Encountered: In the article “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien. “If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie.”

Understanding: I understand him saying that there is nothing morally correct about a true war story.