corrupt

American  

[kuh-ruhpt] / kəˈrʌpt /

adjective

1. guilty of dishonest practices, as bribery; lacking integrity; crooked.

   a corrupt judge.

   Synonyms:

   untrustworthy, false

2. debased in character; depraved; perverted; wicked; evil.

   a corrupt society.

3. (of a text) made inferior by errors or alterations.

   Scholars compared the corrupt Alexandrian manuscript with a more reliable Greek translation.

4. infected; tainted.

5. Archaic. decayed; putrid.

   Synonyms:

   spoiled, decomposed, rotten, putrescent

6. Computers. relating to or designating computer code or stored data that contains errors.

   If the corrupt file won’t open, restore a previous save.

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verb (used with object)

• corrupts,
  present (3rd person singular)
• corrupted,
  past participle,  past
• corrupting
  present participle

1. to destroy the integrity of; cause to be dishonest, disloyal, etc., especially by bribery.

   Synonyms:

   demoralize, suborn, buy, bribe

2. to lower morally; pervert.

   to corrupt youth.

   Synonyms:

   vitiate, debase

3. to alter (a language, text, etc.) for the worse; debase.

4. to mar; spoil.

5. to infect; taint.

   Synonyms:

   defile, pollute, contaminate

6. Archaic. to make putrid or putrescent.

   Synonyms:

   putrefy

7. 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.

8. 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

1. to become corrupt.

corrupt British  

/ kəˈrʌpt /

adjective

1. lacking in integrity; open to or involving bribery or other dishonest practices

   a corrupt official

   corrupt practices in an election

2. morally depraved

3. putrid or rotten

4. contaminated; unclean

5. (of a text or manuscript) made meaningless or different in meaning from the original by scribal errors or alterations

6. (of computer programs or data) containing errors

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verb

1. to become or cause to become dishonest or disloyal

2. to debase or become debased morally; deprave

3. (tr) to infect or contaminate; taint

4. (tr) to cause to become rotten

5. (tr) to alter (a text, manuscript, etc) from the original

6. (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

• corruptedness
  noun
• corrupter
  noun
• corruptness
  noun
• corruptor
  noun
• noncorrupter
  noun
• noncorruptness
  noun
• precorruptness
  noun
• uncorruptedness
  noun
• uncorruptness
  noun
• overcorrupt
  verb
• precorrupt
  verb (used with object)
• corruptive
  adjective
• noncorrupt
  adjective
• noncorruptive
  adjective
• precorruptive
  adjective
• uncorrupt
  adjective
• uncorrupted
  adjective
• uncorrupting
  adjective
• uncorruptive
  adjective
• corruptedly
  adverb
• corruptively
  adverb
• corruptly
  adverb
• noncorruptly
  adverb
• overcorruptly
  adverb
• precorruptly
  adverb
• uncorruptedly
  adverb
• uncorruptly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Participles

• corrupting
  present
• corrupted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• corrupt
  simple
• corrupts
  simple
• have corrupted
  perfect
• has corrupted
  perfect
• am corrupting
  progressive
• are corrupting
  progressive
• is corrupting
  progressive
• have been corrupting
  perfect progressive
• has been corrupting
  perfect progressive

Past

• corrupted
  simple
• had corrupted
  perfect
• was corrupting
  progressive
• were corrupting
  progressive
• had been corrupting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will corrupt
  simple
• will have corrupted
  perfect
• will be corrupting
  progressive
• will have been corrupting
  perfect progressive

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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-

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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."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

corrupt corrupts corrupted corrupting

Damon portrays a corrupt police officer in the film.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026

I mean honestly, if it’s so bad and so corrupt.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2026

Critically, unlike bribery as traditionally defined in the criminal law, the prohibition on emoluments is not conditional on any corrupt bargain by the public official.

From Slate ● Oct. 30, 2026

“You’re messing with something that is there and it’s there for a purpose,” he said in a recorded call, insinuating Chavez was involved in other corrupt acts.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026

“I live here! You terrible girl corrupt my friend!”

From "It’s Kind of a Funny Story" by Ned Vizzini

The unseemly representation of necessary, lethal battle as some sort of videogame corrupts our national culture.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 9, 2026

Downs: I think power corrupts; and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2024

What we know about power is that it always corrupts.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 3, 2023

“If thought corrupts language,” George Orwell wrote, “language can also corrupt thought. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation, even among people who should and do know better.”

From Salon ● Oct. 25, 2023

I believe having an audience naturally corrupts the per-formance.

From "Counting by 7s" by Holly Goldberg Sloan

While the word has been co-opted and corrupted by vision-board romantics and TikTok gurus, it’s still the key to making what we want happen.

From Salon ● Oct. 12, 2026

Dive into this short story about humans’ first contact with an alien who’s been corrupted by some very modern vices.

From Slate ● Sep. 23, 2026

The problem happened "in the space of a millisecond", Nats said, leading to the system producing corrupted data.

From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026

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

To catch the fleeting grace of a new season, a lovely beginning, before it was trampled and corrupted?

From "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini

“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

But Disney has shareholders to serve, and obviously intends to extract all it can from every piece of intellectual property it owns, no matter how creatively corrupting and tasteless the endeavor might be.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 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

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

Her son, the teenage Tolstoyan, believed that wealth was shameful, corrupting, inherently evil—which is ironic because Chris was a natural-born capitalist with an uncanny knack for making a buck.

From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer

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Related Words

• bribe
• contaminate
• debase
• degrade
• demean
• demoralize
• harm
• impair
• misuse
• ruin
• subvert
• taint
• undermine
• violate
• warp

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