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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Decency \De"cen*cy\, noun; pl. {Decencies}. [L. decentia, fr. decens: cf. F. d['e]cence. See {Decent}.]
1. 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.
Observances of time, place, and of decency in general. --Burke.
Immodest words admit of no defense, For want of decency is want of sense. --Roscommon.
2. That which is proper or becoming.
The external decencies of worship. --Atterbury.
Those thousand decencies, that daily flow From all her words and actions. --Milton.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
decency
noun
1: the quality of conforming to standards of propriety and morality [ant: {indecency}]
2: the quality of being polite and respectable
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
123 Moby Thesaurus words for "decency": accommodatingness, advantage, advantageousness, advisability, affability, agreeableness, amiability, appropriateness, assured probity, becomingness, beneficialness, benevolence, benignity, bienseance, blamelessness, ceremoniousness, character, civility, cleanness, complaisance, compliance, conformity, convenance, convenience, convention, conventional usage, conventionalism, conventionality, correctitude, correctness, custom, decencies, decorousness, decorum, delicacy, desirability, dignity, elegance, erectness, estimableness, etiquette, expedience, expediency, fairness, feasibility, felicity, fitness, fittingness, form, formality, fruitfulness, generousness, genteelness, gentility, good character, good form, goodness, graciosity, graciousness, happiness, high ideals, high principles, high-mindedness, honesty, honor, honorableness, immaculacy, integrity, irreproachability, irreproachableness, justice, justness, kindliness, kindness, meetness, modesty, moral excellence, moral strength, niceness, nobility, normality, normativeness, obligingness, opportuneness, percentage, politicness, principles, probity, profit, profitability, properness, proprieties, propriety, prudence, pudency, pudicity, pureness, purity, rectitude, reputability, respectability, righteousness, rightness, seasonableness, seemliness, shame, social convention, social usage, stainlessness, suitability, timeliness, unimpeachability, unimpeachableness, unspottedness, uprightness, upstandingness, urbanity, usefulness, virtue, virtuousness, wisdom, worthiness, worthwhileness
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