Definition: Corruption
From New World Encyclopedia
Etymology
Borrowed from French corruption, from Latin corruptiō.
Noun
corruption (countable and uncountable, plural corruptions)
- The act of corrupting or of impairing integrity, virtue, or moral principle; the state of being corrupted or debased; loss of purity or integrity.
- The act of corrupting or making putrid, or state of being corrupt or putrid; decomposition or disorganization, in the process of putrefaction; putrefaction; deterioration.
- The product of corruption; putrid matter.
- The decomposition of biological matter.
- Unethical administrative or executive practices (in government or business), including bribery (offering or receiving bribes), conflicts of interest, nepotism, and so on.
- (computing) The destruction of data by manipulation of parts of it, either by deliberate or accidental human action or by imperfections in storage or transmission media.
- The act of changing, or of being changed, for the worse; departure from what is pure, simple, or correct.
- a corruption of style
- corruption of innocence
- Something originally good or pure that has turned evil or impure; a perversion.
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