immoral
Americanadjective
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violating moral principles; not conforming to the patterns of conduct usually accepted or established as consistent with principles of personal and social ethics.
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licentious or lascivious.
adjective
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transgressing accepted moral rules; corrupt
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sexually dissolute; profligate or promiscuous
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unscrupulous or unethical
immoral trading
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tending to corrupt or resulting from corruption
an immoral film
immoral earnings
Related Words
Immoral, abandoned, depraved describe one who makes no attempt to curb self-indulgence. Immoral, referring to conduct, applies to one who acts contrary to or does not obey or conform to standards of morality; it may also mean licentious and perhaps dissipated. Abandoned, referring to condition, applies to one hopelessly, and usually passively, sunk in wickedness and unrestrained appetites. Depraved, referring to character, applies to one who voluntarily seeks evil and viciousness. Immoral, amoral, nonmoral, and unmoral are sometimes confused with one another. Immoral means not moral and connotes evil or licentious behavior. Amoral, nonmoral, and unmoral, virtually synonymous although the first is by far the most common form, mean utterly lacking in morals (either good or bad), neither moral nor immoral. However, since, in some contexts, there is a stigma implicit in a complete lack of morals, being amoral, nonmoral, or unmoral is sometimes considered just as reprehensible as being immoral.
Other Word Forms
- immorally adverb
Etymology
Origin of immoral
Compare meaning
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In June 2025, during the previous war with Iran, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel expressed concern over the "not only immoral but also unconstitutional" situation.
From Barron's • Mar. 14, 2026
How should we think about the fact that what is moral today is egregiously immoral in 10 years’ time?
From Slate • Feb. 3, 2026
It said this was a breach of its disciplinary policy relating to "indecent, offensive or immoral behaviour" and "offensive use of social media".
From BBC • Oct. 31, 2025
In wealthy, more economically equal countries such as Switzerland and Belgium, people were more likely to say that having too much money is immoral.
From Salon • Oct. 25, 2025
The private eyes learned that the marriage had been orchestrated by Minnie Savage—a “shrewd, immoral, capable woman,” as one investigator put it, who ran a boardinghouse in Pawhuska.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
