corruption
Pluralcorruptions (some meanings)
- 1Dishonest or unethical conduct by those in power, such as bribery, nepotism, embezzlement, or conflicts of interest.
The investigation uncovered widespread corruption within the planning department.
Several executives were charged with corruption after the audit revealed hidden payments.
Similarbribery, graft, dishonesty, fraud, venality
Oppositeintegrity, honesty, probity
Note
The institutional sense covers bribery, nepotism, embezzlement and related abuses committed by people with power over others. Venality is a close synonym but narrower, because it points at the readiness to be bought. Where the moral sense describes what happens to a person's character, this one names conduct. That is why it takes verbs like uncover, investigate and charge with.
- 2The act of impairing someone's integrity, virtue, or moral principle, or the resulting state of being debased.
The novel traces the gradual corruption of an idealistic young lawyer.
Critics warned of the corruption of public morals by unchecked greed.
Similardebasement, degradation, perversion, depravity
Note
The core moral sense, and the first of several that share one origin. The word came through French corruption from Latin corruptiō, built like English corrupt plus -ion. It works as a mass noun (the slow corruption of a character) and as a count noun. Henry Hallam in 1827 writes of the "gross corruptions of monasteries," meaning particular abuses rather than a general condition.
- 3A change for the worse; a departure from what is pure, simple, or correct.
Scholars debated the corruption of the original doctrine over the centuries.
The corruption of the recipe across generations left it unrecognizable.
Similardebasement, distortion, perversion, degeneration, adulteration
- 4In computing, damage to or loss of data through changes to parts of it, made by people deliberately or accidentally or caused by faulty storage or transmission media.
Disk corruption made several important documents impossible to open.
Network engineers traced the file corruption to a faulty cable.
Similardamage
Note
In computing the word is common as a mass noun with a modifier: data corruption, file corruption, disk corruption. Specialists also count it. Tony Redmond's Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 with SP1 (2008) speaks of "a corruption" striking a source server, and explains that a replication time lag keeps it from spreading to the copy of the database.
- 5A nonstandard form of a word, expression, or text, especially one resulting from misunderstanding, mishearing, or transcription error.
The spelling 'apron' began as a corruption of the older form 'napron.'
Folk etymology frequently produces a corruption of the original phrase.
Similaralteration, distortion
Note
Philologists and textual critics use this word for a form that drifted from its source. Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) derives Carfax from "Quatre Face." Bart D. Ehrman's The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture (1996) describes scribes "corrupting a corruption." The usual pattern is a corruption of X, naming the original form. The word carries a judgment: calling a form a corruption treats the older one as correct.
- 6Something originally good or pure that has become evil or impure; a perversion of its former self.
The cult struck observers as a corruption of a once-peaceful spiritual movement.
He saw the regime as a corruption of everything the founders had hoped for.
Similarperversion, travesty, distortion, debasement
Note
Religious writing gives this sense its weight. Countable and often plural, it names particular faults within a church or a soul. John McKerrow's History of the Secession church (1841) admits "corruptions in the Church of Scotland." Ezekiel Hopkins pairs "such a corruption" with "such a lust," both to be "mortified and subdued." Unlike the change for the worse, it names the corrupted thing rather than the process.
- 7The act or process of rotting and breaking down; the putrefaction and deterioration of matter.
The corruption of the corpse had advanced significantly by the time it was found.
Embalming was intended to delay the body's corruption.
Similardecay, putrefaction, rot, decomposition, rotting
Note
Here the decay is physical, and older writing treats it as part of nature's cycle rather than as a disgrace. Francis Bacon in 1627 calls corruption "a reciprocal to generation": things rot as surely as they come into being. Bacon sets it beside putrefaction, and the two words travel together in this register. For rot described simply as a biological process, the decomposition sense is the plainer choice.
- 8The decomposition of biological matter, such as plant or animal remains.
Microbes drive the corruption of organic material in the compost heap.
Fungi accelerate the corruption of the fallen log into rich humus.
Similardecomposition, decay, rotting, breakdown
- 9The putrid matter produced by decay; the rotten substance that results from rotting.
The surgeon drained the corruption from the infected wound.
Beneath the floorboards lay a mass of dark, foul-smelling corruption.
Similarpus, rot, putrescence
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of corruption apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
Borrowed from French corruption, from Latin corruptiō; it is equivalent to corrupt plus the suffix -ion.