Meaning & use
corrupt
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Meanings
adjectivecomparabledisapproving
Willing to act dishonestly in return for money or advantage, especially while holding a position of power.
Grammar: Describes people and organizations: a corrupt official, a corrupt police force.
Patterns
- corrupt officials
- corrupt practices
The mayor was jailed for taking payments from corrupt contractors.
Voters were angry about the corrupt way contracts were handed out.
A corrupt inspector ignored the safety violations in exchange for cash.
verbtransitive
To make someone behave dishonestly or immorally, or to weaken their good character.
Grammar: Takes an object: money can corrupt people.
Patterns
- corrupt someone
- be corrupted by something
Critics said that easy money would corrupt the young players.
He feared that power might corrupt him.
The scandal showed how greed can corrupt an entire department.
adjectivebefore a nouncomputing
Damaged so that data cannot be read or used properly.
Grammar: Often appears as corrupt file or corrupt data; as a verb it also means to damage data.
I could not open the report because the file was corrupt.
A corrupt download left the program unable to start.
Word forms
| comparative | more corrupt |
|---|---|
| superlative | most corrupt |
| third person singular | corrupts |
| past tense | corrupted |
| past participle | corrupted |
| -ing form | corrupting |
Common combinations
- corrupt official
- A corrupt official had been selling permits.
- corrupt regime
- The corrupt regime hid its profits abroad.
- corrupt a file
- A power cut can corrupt a file that is being saved.
- deeply corrupt
- The investigation found a deeply corrupt system.
- corrupt influence
- Parents worried about the corrupt influence of the gang.
Synonyms and how they differ
- dishonest
- Dishonest is broader and covers any lying or cheating, while corrupt usually involves abuse of power or bribes.
- crooked
- Crooked is informal and punchy, often used of police and businesspeople, where corrupt sounds more formal.
- venal
- Venal is a formal word that specifically means open to bribes, a narrower idea than corrupt.
- degrade
- Degrade, as a verb, means to lower the quality or dignity of something, while corrupt stresses moral damage.
Opposites
Word family
- corruption noun
- dishonest behavior by people in power
- corruptible adjective
- able to be made dishonest
- incorruptible adjective
- impossible to bribe or morally damage
- corruptly adverb
- in a dishonest way
Commonly confused: corrupt or erupt?
corrupt vs erupt
Erupt means to burst out suddenly, as a volcano does; it is not related in meaning to corrupt, though the sound is close.
Practice
Which sentence uses corrupt as a verb?
Choose one answer.
In option 3, corrupt is the action word that takes the object judgment. In the others it is an adjective describing a noun.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “corrupt”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.