corrupt
/kəˈɹʌpt/
corrupt adjective: willing to act dishonestly for personal gain; accepting bribes.
Adjective
corrupt (comparative more corrupt, superlative most corrupt)
- Willing to act dishonestly for personal gain; accepting bribes.
- In a depraved state; debased; perverted; morally degenerate; weak in morals.
- The government here is corrupt, so we'll emigrate to escape them.
- The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 6:11
- Abounding in errors; not genuine or correct; in an invalid state.
- The text of the manuscript is corrupt.
- It turned out that the program was corrupt - that's why it wouldn't open.
- In a putrid state; spoiled; tainted; vitiated; unsound.
- with such corrupt and pestilent bread to feed them.1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC
Verb
corrupt (third-person singular simple present corrupts, present participle corrupting, simple past and past participle corrupted)
- To make corrupt; to change from good to bad; to draw away from the right path; to deprave; to pervert.
- Don't you dare corrupt my son with those disgusting pictures!
- And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 6:12
- To become putrid, tainted, or otherwise impure; to putrefy; to rot.
- he entrails, which are the parts aptest to corrupt1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “VIII. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for...
- […] Lanfrank takes Notice of Tract. 3. Doct. 3. cap. 18. ſaying, "I have ſeen many who being full of Humours, have made an Iſſue under the Knee, before due Purgation had been premis'd; whence, by reaſon of the too great Defluxion of Humours, the Legs tumified, ſo that the cauterized Place...1732, George Smith, Institutiones Chirurgicæ: or, Principles of Surgery, … To which is Annexed, a Chirurgical Dispensatory, …, London: Printed [by William Bowyer] for Henry Lintot, at the Cross-Keys...
- To introduce errors; to place into an invalid state.
- Unplugging a flash drive without dismounting it first can corrupt the data stored on the drive.
- To debase or make impure by alterations or additions; to falsify.
- to corrupt language, or a holy text
- to corrupt a book
- Synonyms:
- adulter, bastardize, sophisticate, abase, adulterate, adulterize, alloy, balderdash, dash, dilute
- To waste, spoil, or consume; to make worthless.
- Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 6:19
corrupt meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
corrupt in Hindi
- in a depraved state
- बेईमान beīmān, भ्रष्ट bhraṣṭ
- with lots of errors in it
- अशुद्ध aśuddh, त्रुटिपूर्ण truṭipūrṇ
- to change from good to bad
- भ्रंश bhrañś
corrupt in Tamil
- கைக்கூலிக் கொடு, வாங்கு, பிழை, பிழைபடு
corrupt in Marathi
- भ्रष्टाचारी
corrupt in Urdu
- corrupt
- فاسد fāsid, شریر šarīr
More languagesFewer languages
- corrupt in Bengali
- দুষ্ট duśṭo
- corrupt in Malayalam
- ചീത്തയായ, ദുഷിച്ച, മലിനമായ, അധഃപതിച്ച
- corrupt in Kannada
- ಲಂಚಕೋರ, ಭ್ರಷ್ಟ, ಲಂಚ ತಿನ್ನುವ, ಸಯ್ಯಗ
- corrupt in Punjabi
- ਬੇਈਮਾਨ beīmān
- corrupt in Gujarati
- ભ્રષ્ટ bhraṣṭ
- corrupt in Odia
- ଦୁର୍ନୀତିଗ୍ରସ୍ତ, ଦୁର୍ନୀତି କରିବା
- corrupt in Sanskrit
- दोषयति doṣayati
- corrupt in Nepali
- भ्रष्ट गर्न
- corrupt in Tagalog
- tiwali, korap, kurakot
- corrupt in Arabic
- مُرْتَشٍ murtašin, فَاسِد fāsid, أَفْسَدَ ʔafsada
- corrupt in Vietnamese
- tham nhũng
Examples of corrupt in a sentence
- I think that there is a bad idea around in our world, and that idea is that 'power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely'.1985 April 17, Frank Herbert, 34:18 from the start, in Frank Herbert speaking at UCLA 4/17/1985, UCLACommStudies, archived from the...
- George Soros remains a favorite target of conservative conspiracy theorists, seeing his corrupting influence behind every liberal movement and within every nook and cranny.2020 November 18, Brian Lowry, “‘Soros’ looks at the life and activism of the right’s favorite bogeyman”, in CNN:
Synonyms of corrupt
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of corrupt
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more corrupt |
| superlative | most corrupt |
| alternative form | corrumpt |
| alternative form | corrump |
| alternative form | corroupt |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | corrupts |
| present participle | corrupting |
| past participle | corrupted |
| past | corrupted |
Origin of corrupt
From Middle English corrupten, derived from Latin corruptus, past participle of corrumpō (“to destroy, ruin, injure, spoil, corrupt, bribe”), from com- (“together”) + rumpō (“to break in pieces”).
Words formed from corrupt
Phrases with corrupt
Words that rhyme with corrupt
Questions about corrupt
- What does corrupt mean?
- Corrupt means willing to act dishonestly for personal gain; accepting bribes.
- What is corrupt in Hindi?
- Corrupt in Hindi is बेईमान (beīmān), भ्रष्ट (bhraṣṭ), अशुद्ध (aśuddh). See Corrupt meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use corrupt in a sentence?
- I think that there is a bad idea around in our world, and that idea is that 'power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely'.
- What part of speech is corrupt?
- Corrupt can be an adjective or a verb.
- How do you pronounce corrupt?
- Corrupt is pronounced /kəˈɹʌpt/.
Words near corrupt in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: corrupt (page history and authors); corrupt (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); corrupt (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); شریر (Urdu) (page history and authors); দুষ্ট (Bengali) (page history and authors); corrupt (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); corrupt (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਬੇਈਮਾਨ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); ભ્રષ્ટ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); corrupt (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); दोषयति (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); corrupt (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-corrupt.ogg.
Cite this entry: “corrupt.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/corrupt. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.