This study started with the assumptions that ehteram (‘respect, deference’) is an Iranian cultural keyword frequently used in interactions, and also to communicate across cultures, first one needs to raise their own internal rules from a subconscious level to a conscious level. For this purpose, the researcher tried to investigate how ehteram as a cultural keyword is conceptualized in Iranian culture based on the Persian Linguistics Data-base corpus, using corpus-based metapragmatics and thick description research method. 754 instances of the use of ehteram (respect) and its cognates mohtaram (respected), mohtaramaneh (respectably), and hormat (reverence) were extracted from the corpus. The researcher found different contexts that evoke the use of the concept of ehteram, namely power, manners, considerateness, qualifications, submission, age, hospitality, possessions, and beauty. Based on overlaps in meanings and uses, the researcher put the uses of manners, considerateness, and hospitality in one group and uses of power, submission, age, and possessions in another group that comprise forty-nine percent of the whole data. It is argued in the thesis that the main concept that nearly half of the whole uses of ehteram revolves around is sha'n (dignity, social status). Two uses of beauty and qualifications did not match any other uses and as a result, were classified in two separate groups. Hormat as an ehteram cognate is a special kind of respect-worthiness for individuals and objects' inherent value. Ehteram is dynamic and reciprocal and forms during interaction, while hormat is more permanent, exists before interaction, and creates a kind of immunity for the person or the object. According to the review of the literature and the findings of the present study, ehteram in Persian and respect in English have some similarities and differences. Uses of power, manners, considerateness, qualification, submission, and reverence are seen in both cultures. On the other hand, t
