English

Etymology
French corruption, from Latin corruptio

Noun
corruption (uncountable and countable; plural corruptions)

1. The act of corrupting or of impairing integrity, virtue, or moral principle; the state of being corrupted or debased; loss of purity or integrity; depravity; wickedness; impurity; bribery.

#:It was necessary, by exposing the gross corruptions of monasteries, . . . to exite popular indignation against them. — w:Arthur Hallam|Hallam
#:They abstained from some of the worst methods of corruption usual to their party in its earlier days. — w:Bancroft|Bancroft
#*Usage note: Corruption, when applied to officers, trustees, etc., signifies the inducing a violation of duty by means of pecuniary considerations. — w:Abbott|Abbott

1. The act of corrupting or making putrid, or state of being corrupt or putrid; decomposition or disorganization, in the process of putrefaction; putrefaction; deterioration.
2. The product of corruption; putrid matter.
3. The decomposition of biological matter.
4. computing The destruction of data by manipulation of parts of it, usually a result of imperfections in storage or transmission media which randomly alter parts of the data.
5. The act of changing, or of being changed, for the worse; departure from what is pure, simple, or correct; as, a corruption of style; corruption in language.
6. linguistics A word that has adopted from another language but whose spelling has been changed through misunderstanding, transcription error, mishearing, etc.
7. Something that is evil but is supposed to be good.

#:The inducing and accelerating of putrefaction is a subject of very universal inquiry; for corruption is a reciprocal to generation. — w:Francis Bacon|Francis Bacon.

1. Parts of a machine can be corrupted, meaning broken.

Synonyms

i-c|act of corrupting or making putrid adulteration, contamination, debasement, defilement, dirtying, soiling, tainting
i-c|state of being corrupt or putrid decay, decomposition, deterioration, putrefaction, rotting
i-c|product of corruption; putrid matter decay, putrescence, rot
i-c|act of impairing integrity|virtue or moral principle
i-c|state of being corrupted or debased debasement, depravity, evil, impurity, sinfulness, wickedness
i-c|bribery bribery
i-c|act of changing for the worse deterioration, worsening
i-c|act of being changed for the worse destroying, ruining, spoiling
i-c|departure from what is pure or correct deterioration, erosion
i-c|word adopted from another language whose spelling has been changed

Derived terms
corruption of blood
<!--move to their own pages
Corruption of blood, (Law): taint or impurity of blood, in consequence of an act of attainder of treason or felony, by which a person is disabled from inheriting any estate or from transmitting it to others.
*Corruption of blood can be removed only by act of Parliament. - Blackstone
-->

webster

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pl:corruption
ru:corruption
fi:corruption
te:corruption
vi:corruption
zh:corruption

• 2007-09-29 12:17 - UllmannBot - iwiki +fi, ku, te

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