corrupt
Americanadjective
-
guilty of dishonest practices, as bribery; lacking integrity; crooked.
a corrupt judge.
- Synonyms:
- untrustworthy, false
-
debased in character; depraved; perverted; wicked; evil.
a corrupt society.
-
(of a text) made inferior by errors or alterations.
Scholars compared the corrupt Alexandrian manuscript with a more reliable Greek translation.
-
infected; tainted.
-
Archaic. decayed; putrid.
- Synonyms:
- spoiled, decomposed, rotten, putrescent
-
Computers. relating to or designating computer code or stored data that contains errors.
If the corrupt file won’t open, restore a previous save.
verb (used with object)
-
corrupts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
corrupted,
past participle, past
-
corrupting
present participle
-
to destroy the integrity of; cause to be dishonest, disloyal, etc., especially by bribery.
- Synonyms:
- demoralize, suborn, buy, bribe
-
to lower morally; pervert.
to corrupt youth.
-
to alter (a language, text, etc.) for the worse; debase.
-
to mar; spoil.
-
to infect; taint.
- Synonyms:
- defile, pollute, contaminate
-
Archaic. to make putrid or putrescent.
- Synonyms:
- putrefy
-
Computers. to introduce errors in (computer code or stored data) when saving, transmitting, or retrieving it.
I downloaded some free modifications that corrupted the core program, so I can’t open it until I uninstall and reinstall the original version.
-
English Law. (in historical use) to subject (an attainted person) to corruption of blood.
verb (used without object)
-
corrupts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
corrupted,
past participle, past
-
corrupting
present participle
adjective
-
lacking in integrity; open to or involving bribery or other dishonest practices
a corrupt official
corrupt practices in an election
-
morally depraved
-
putrid or rotten
-
contaminated; unclean
-
(of a text or manuscript) made meaningless or different in meaning from the original by scribal errors or alterations
-
(of computer programs or data) containing errors
verb
-
to become or cause to become dishonest or disloyal
-
to debase or become debased morally; deprave
-
(tr) to infect or contaminate; taint
-
(tr) to cause to become rotten
-
(tr) to alter (a text, manuscript, etc) from the original
-
(tr) computing to introduce errors into (data or a program)
Usage
What does corrupt mean? Corrupt is commonly used as an adjective to describe members of organizations or institutions who engage in illegal or otherwise dishonest practices to benefit themselves. It can also be used in this way to describe their actions or institutions that have a lot of this activity. Corrupt can also be used as verb meaning to destroy the integrity of someone or something or cause someone to be dishonest. The state of being corrupt is corruption. Both terms are most often used in the context of such rulebreaking by people who are powerful or who are responsible for the well-being of others, such as politicians, government officials, and police officers. More generally, corrupt can be used as an adjective that means depraved, debased, or having been made worse in some way. It can also be used as a verb meaning to make someone or something depraved, debased, or worse in some way. More specifically, corrupt can mean to alter a word or text in a way that deviates from its original or intended form. Example: This isn’t just one or two corrupt officials. The whole organization is corrupt—bribes and kickbacks are their normal way of doing business.
Synonym Usage
Corrupt, dishonest, venal apply to a person, especially in public office, who acts on mercenary motives, without regard to honor, right, or justice. A corrupt politician is one originally honest who has succumbed to temptation and begun questionable practices. A dishonest politician is one lacking native integrity. A venal politician is one so totally debased as to sell patronage.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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corruptednessnoun
-
corrupternoun
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corruptnessnoun
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corruptornoun
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noncorrupternoun
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noncorruptnessnoun
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precorruptnessnoun
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uncorruptednessnoun
-
uncorruptnessnoun
-
overcorruptverb
-
precorruptverb (used with object)
-
corruptiveadjective
-
noncorruptadjective
-
noncorruptiveadjective
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precorruptiveadjective
-
uncorruptadjective
-
uncorruptedadjective
-
uncorruptingadjective
-
uncorruptiveadjective
-
corruptedlyadverb
-
corruptivelyadverb
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corruptlyadverb
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noncorruptlyadverb
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overcorruptlyadverb
-
precorruptlyadverb
-
uncorruptedlyadverb
-
uncorruptlyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
corruptsimple
-
corruptssimple
-
have corruptedperfect
-
has corruptedperfect
-
am corruptingprogressive
-
are corruptingprogressive
-
is corruptingprogressive
-
have been corruptingperfect progressive
-
has been corruptingperfect progressive
Past
-
corruptedsimple
-
had corruptedperfect
-
was corruptingprogressive
-
were corruptingprogressive
-
had been corruptingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of corrupt
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English verb from Latin corruptus “rotten, decayed, corrupted” (past participle of corrumpere ), equivalent to cor- intensive prefix + rup- (variant stem of rumpere “to break”) + -tus past participle suffix; see cor-
Explanation
If someone or something is corrupt, they’re broken morally or in some other way. Corrupt people perform immoral or illegal acts for personal gain, without apology. Corrupt politicians take bribes and deny it. When you corrupt someone, you convince them to do something wrong or even illegal. If you talk your little brother into stealing cookies from the cookie jar, you're corrupting him. Something corrupt is rotten, spoiled, or out of commission, like a file that makes your computer crash. A corrupt person — a criminal, a crook, or a cookie thief — brings society down with immoral and dishonest behavior. Corrupt goes back to the Latin roots cor-, "altogether," and rumpere, "break."
Vocabulary lists containing corrupt
Make a Break for It: Rupt
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Oh, No! Synonyms for "Bad"
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Purple Hibiscus
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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:
What follows is a modern picaresque journey, in which a clever underdog has to rely on her wit and wiles to survive a corrupt and perilous world.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026
"You must be sure that your hands are clean. You can't be fighting corruption when your hands are soiled with corrupt practices," Olukoyede said.
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026
Even corrupt public servants deserve a second chance.
From Salon ● Aug. 21, 2026
Fabrizio Foschini, a researcher at the Afghanistan Analysts Network, said during earlier decades of war "mining mainly benefited insurgent groups, including the Taliban, and local strongmen with links to corrupt government officials".
From Barron's ● Aug. 9, 2026
Did he mean say "yes" because he knew that the principle was greater than the men, greater than the numbers and the vicious power and all the methods used to corrupt its name?
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
The unseemly representation of necessary, lethal battle as some sort of videogame corrupts our national culture.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 9, 2026
Davidson concedes that “those who worry that power corrupts and that once the right seizes power it too will be corrupted … have a point.”
From Salon ● May 13, 2025
The movie is a lark, not a hard-hitting statement about how mass media corrupts the soul.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 21, 2024
What we know about power is that it always corrupts.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 3, 2023
“There’s rumored to be an entrance nearby to the last level of Asamando—the Eloko Forests. The Eloko corrupts everything it’s near. Weather. Plants. Friendships. It’s this corruption that affects the sands around here.”
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
These scenes take place in Bohemia, which represents the moral and spiritual opposite of Sicilia; it’s a place where joyful anarchy and freedom replace the oppressive and destructive rigidities of the corrupted Sicilia.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
Now imagine that kind of corrupted, perverted system of justice writ large.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 24, 2026
"Do not let yourselves be corrupted by temptations that waste your energies and do not serve the progress of society."
From BBC ● Apr. 17, 2026
"According to me and the majority of nations involved in this race, Canada corrupted everything that is meant to be fair and beautiful about our sport," she added.
From Barron's ● Jan. 24, 2026
Surely Bon could not have corrupted her to fatalism in twelve days, who not only had not tried to corrupt her to unchastity but not even to defy her father.
From "Absalom, Absalom!" by William Faulkner
“First Cow” is about the sweetness of friendship and French pastries in the wilds of Oregon during westward expansion; “The Weight” is about the corrupting forces of capitalism.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
Reasonable people will go in circles forever about whether specific cases are proof of the industry’s maturity or proof of its corrupting effect.
From Slate ● Apr. 28, 2026
To Old Hickory, the bank was unconstitutional, corrupt and, with respect to American liberty and character, corrupting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 21, 2026
But the judge said Bembridge had a public role and had failed to carry out his duties on behalf of the King for a corrupting motive.
From BBC ● Feb. 20, 2026
The same thing happened to those emperors who came to power from being private citizens by corrupting the soldiers.
From "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli
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.
