noun
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Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of depravity
Explanation
Depravity goes beyond mere bad behavior — it is a total lack of morals, values, and even regard for other living things, like the depravity of a serial killer. You can see the verb deprave in depravity. To deprave is to make something bad, often to the point of moral corruption, like the parental fear that a bad influence will deprave their good kids. So, depravity is behavior that is morally corrupt or otherwise deemed wicked. Don't confuse depravity with deprivation, meaning "being denied something that is necessary."
Vocabulary lists containing depravity
The Scarlet Letter
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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
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"Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave" Vocabulary from the autobiography
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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.
See Examples For:
Cavalcanti’s, no less brilliant in its execution, looks through the glass darkly, with painful scenes of long-ago squalor and depravity that sadly echo our own.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 11, 2026
Even Tina Fey has joked about Fennell’s fondness for sudden depravity.
From Salon ● Feb. 14, 2026
The lust for vengeance eventually gets the better of him, but Swenson leads us step by step to depravity through sorrow, injustice and humiliation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 3, 2026
At the Daily Beast, Jill Filipovic engages in some needed truth-telling about the depravity of the propaganda video:
From Salon ● Feb. 25, 2025
“We do also, unfortunately,” replied my father, “for indeed I had rather have been for ever ignorant than have discovered so much depravity and ungratitude in one I valued so highly.”
From "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley
In his application to Metro, Birk presented his large-scale public art, not the gallery works that included the depravities of war series.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 18, 2023
Just listen to the seething passions and depravities of “Wise Blood,” Flannery O’Connor’s vicious satire of religiosity in the Deep South, and featuring a menagerie of grotesque characters by Pinchot.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 7, 2022
“That they are better off than we; and we brave our unmerited poverty stoically, whilst they sail yachts, and indulge in God knows what depravities in boathouses.”
From Washington Post ● Mar. 6, 2018
Let them groan at my depravities, and blush for my misdeeds.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 27, 2015
Eisman knew more about that market, its characters, and its depravities than anyone Lippmann had ever spoken with.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
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.
