venal
/ˈviːnəl/
venal adjective: venous; pertaining to veins.
Adjective (1)
venal (comparative more venal, superlative most venal)
- Venous; pertaining to veins.
Adjective (2)
venal (comparative more venal, superlative most venal)
- For sale; available for purchase.
- Because lips libertine and and venal had murmured such words to him, he believed but little in the candour of hers; […].1886, Gustave Flaubert, chapter XII, in Eleanor Marx-Aveling, transl., Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners […], London: Vizetelly & Co., […], →OCLC, part II, page 210
- Synonyms:
- purchasable
- Of a position, privilege etc.: available for purchase rather than assigned on merit.
- Thus, regimental commands in the army were – as with the judiciary or the financial bureaucracy – venal posts, which were purchased, bequeathed and sold among the nobility.2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 140
- Capable of being bought (of a person); willing to take bribes.
- Synonyms:
- crooked
- Corrupt, mercenary.
- Though there is a disposition in mankind, to declaim against the corruption and peculation of the present times, as being more venal than formerly; yet, if we look back to different periods, we shall find statesmen and politicians, as selfish and corrupt, […] as those who have lately figured on the...1785, The Times, 9 Feb 1785, page 1, column C
venal meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada
venal in Urdu
- پیسے کا لالچی, قابل خرید, رشوت خور, ضمیر فروش, زر پرست
venal in Bengali
- ঘুষ গ্রহণে সক্ষম, দুর্নীতিগ্রস্ত
venal in Malayalam
- bribable, corrupt, corruptible
- വിലയ്ക്കുവാങ്ങാവുന്ന, പണത്തിനുവേണ്ടി അധർമ്മം ചെയ്യുന്ന, അഴിമതിചെയ്യുന്ന, ധനമോഹം കൊണ്ടു വഞ്ചന കാട്ടുന്ന, ദുഷിച്ച, ദുരാചാരമുള്ള
venal in Kannada
- ಅಡ್ಡಿಕ್ಕಬಲ್ಲ, ಲಂಚ ಕೊಡಬಲ್ಲ
Synonyms of venal
Antonyms
Forms of venal
| comparative | more venal |
|---|---|
| superlative | most venal |
Origin of venal
From Latin vēna (“vein”) + -al.
Borrowed from French vénal, from Old French venel, from Latin vēnālis (“for sale”), from vēnum (“something for sale”); compare English vend.
Words formed from venal
Words that rhyme with venal
Questions about venal
- What does venal mean?
- Venal means venous; pertaining to veins.
- What is venal in Urdu?
- Venal in Urdu is پیسے کا لالچی, قابل خرید, رشوت خور. See Venal meaning in Urdu.
- What part of speech is venal?
- Venal is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce venal?
- Venal is pronounced /ˈviːnəl/.
Words near venal in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: venal (page history and authors); venal (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); venal (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); venal (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); venal (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-venal.wav.
Cite this entry: “venal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/venal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.