corruption
/kəˈrʌpʃ(ə)n
/noun [mass noun]
1Dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery: the journalist who wants to expose corruption in high places...
- This produces a perfect environment for corruption, bribery and insider-dealing.
- He claimed that the investigation had shown allegations of insider trading, bribery and corruption to be false.
- He said he supported the role of the media in exposing corruption, dishonesty and malpractice in public life.
Synonyms
dishonesty, dishonest dealings, unscrupulousness, deceit, deception, duplicity, double-dealing, fraud, fraudulence, misconduct, lawbreaking, crime, criminality, delinquency, wrongdoing, villainy;
bribery, bribing, subornation, venality, graft, extortion, jobbery, profiteering;
North American payola
informal crookedness, shadiness, sleaze, palm-greasing
Law malfeasance, misfeasance
archaic knavery
rare malversation
1.1The action or effect of making someone or something morally depraved: the corruption of youth was a powerful motif the word ‘addict’ conjures up evil and corruption...
- Righting wrongs and fighting evil, corruption, wickedness and stupidity is just part time work.
- He sinned, and his nature was thereby corrupted and depraved; and this corruption is conveyed to all his posterity.
- She does not die as a victim, but having forgiven her executioners, she talks back at them and tries to show them their corruption, perversion and inhumanity.
Synonyms
sin, sinfulness, ungodliness, unrighteousness, profanity, impiety, impurity;
immorality, depravity, vice, iniquity, turpitude, degeneracy, perversion, pervertedness, debauchery, dissolution, dissoluteness, decadence, profligacy, wantonness, indecency, lasciviousness, lewdness, lechery;
wickedness, evil, baseness, vileness
2The process by which a word or expression is changed from its original state to one regarded as erroneous or debased: a record of a word’s corruption [count noun]: the term ‘hobgoblin’ is thought to be a corruption of ‘Robgoblin’...
- Barolini's love for language is evident throughout the book as well; much of the prose is concerned with ferreting out word origins, with word play, corruptions, and evolution.
- However, all phoneticians and linguists agree that the widely held view that many accents are corruptions of a pure pronunciation has no scientific basis whatsoever.
- I am disinterested in their games, parties, loves and hates - and frequently distressed by their corruptions of the language.
Synonyms
alteration, falsification, doctoring, manipulation, manipulating, fudging, adulteration, debasement, degradation, abuse, subversion, misrepresentation, misapplication
rare vitiation
2.1The process by which a computer database or program becomes debased by alteration or the introduction of errors: this procedure creates a temporary file to prevent accidental corruption...
- This can cause data corruption, particularly with databases.
- Access errors lead to data corruption, which causes a program to behave incorrectly or crash.
- The tool enables the user to choose which records to display and includes safety mechanisms to prevent accidental data corruption.
3 archaic The process of decay; putrefaction: the potato turned black and rotten with corruption...
- I became acquainted with the science of anatomy: but this was not sufficient; I must also observe the natural decay and corruption of the human body.
Origin
Middle English: via Old French from Latin corruptio(n-), from corrumpere 'mar, bribe, destroy' (see corrupt).