improbity

American  

[im-proh-bi-tee] / ɪmˈproʊ bɪ ti /

noun

1. lack of honesty or moral scruples.

2. Obsolete. perseverance.

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improbity British  

/ ɪmˈprəʊbɪtɪ /

noun

1. dishonesty, wickedness, or unscrupulousness

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Etymology

Origin of improbity

First recorded in 1590–1600; im- ² ( def. ) + probity ( def. )

Explanation

Every supervillain is known for their improbity: dishonesty, immorality, and shadiness. Improbity is a heavy-duty word for a general lack of integrity. A corrupt executive or politician displays improbity by doing things like fraudulently using company or public funds for personal gain. Improbity encompasses any immoral or unethical behavior. Its roots are im-, meaning "not," and the Latin probitas, meaning "honesty" or "uprightness." So while someone with probity is an upstanding person of their word, someone characterized by improbity cannot be trusted.

Example Sentences

Howat was hot and cold, and possessed by a subtle sense of improbity, a feeling resembling that of a doubtful advance through the dark, for a questionable end.

From The Three Black Pennys A Novel by Hergesheimer, Joseph

Would there be some fatal weakness, some insidious improbity, in the nature of those descending from Roland Sefton?

From Cobwebs and Cables by Stretton, Hesba

"Beelzebub" had been floundering in the sea of improbity, holding by a slender life-line to the respectable world that had cast him overboard.

From Cabbages and Kings by Henry, O.

Yet here too there is the stain of intellectual improbity, and it is perhaps all the more mischievous for being partly hidden under the mien of spiritual exaltation.

From On Compromise by Morley, John

Even in trifles, if the mind and tongue be at variance, there is some kind of improbity.

From Arguments Of Celsus, Porphyry, And The Emperor Julian, Against The Christians Also Extracts from Diodorus Siculus, Josephus, and Tacitus, Relating to the Jews, Together with an Appendix by Taylor, Thomas