corruption

English

Etymology

From French corruption, from Latin corruptio

Noun

corruption (countable and uncountable; plural corruptions)

1. The act of corrupting or of impairing integrity, virtue, or moral principle; the state of being corrupted or debased; loss of purity or integrity; depravity; wickedness; impurity; bribery.
   • Henry Hallam The Constitutional History of England

     It was necessary, by exposing the gross corruptions of monasteries, . . . to exite popular indignation against them.

   • Bancroft

     They abstained from some of the worst methods of corruption usual to their party in its earlier days.

2. The act of corrupting or making putrid, or state of being corrupt or putrid; decomposition or disorganization, in the process of putrefaction; putrefaction; deterioration.
3. The product of corruption; putrid matter.
4. The decomposition of biological matter.
5. (computing) The destruction of data by manipulation of parts of it, either by deliberate or accidental human action or by imperfections in storage or transmission media.
6. The act of changing, or of being changed, for the worse; departure from what is pure, simple, or correct; as, a corruption of style; corruption in language.
7. (linguistics) A debased or nonstandard form of a word, expression, or text, resulting from misunderstanding, transcription error, mishearing, etc.
8. Something that is evil but is supposed to be good.

   The inducing and accelerating of putrefaction is a subject of very universal inquiry; for corruption is a reciprocal to generation. — Francis Bacon.

Usage notes

• Corruption, when applied to officers, trustees, etc., signifies the inducing a violation of duty by means of pecuniary considerations. — Abbott

Translations

act of corrupting

Arabic: فَساد (ar) (fasaad)

French: corruption (fr) f.

Synonyms

• (act of corrupting or making putrid): adulteration, contamination, debasement, defilement, dirtying, soiling, tainting
• (state of being corrupt or putrid): decay, decomposition, deterioration, putrefaction, rotting
• (product of corruption; putrid matter): decay, putrescence, rot
• (act of impairing integrity, virtue or moral principle):
• (state of being corrupted or debased): debasement, depravity, evil, impurity, sinfulness, wickedness
• (bribery): bribery
• (act of changing for the worse): deterioration, worsening
• (act of being changed for the worse): destroying, ruining, spoiling
• (departure from what is pure or correct): deterioration, erosion
• (debased or nonstandard form of a word, expression, or text): bastardization

Derived terms

• corruption of blood

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.

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French

Noun

corruption f. (plural corruptions)

1. corruption

Related terms

• corrompre

Anagrams

• croupiront