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What's the difference between venal and venial?
If you are given the choice between acts that are venal and those that are venial, go for the venial. Although the two words look and sound alike, they have very different meanings and histories. Venal demonstrates the adage that anything can be had if the price is high enough and the morals are low enough. That word originated with the Latin venum, which simply referred to something that was sold or for sale. Some of those transactions must have been rather shady because by the mid-1600s, venal had gained the sense of corruption it carries today. Venial sins, on the other hand, are pardonable, the kind that show that everyone makes mistakes sometimes. That forgiving term descends from venia, Latin for "favor," "indulgence," or "pardon."
Examples of venal in a Sentence
Charles King, Foreign Affairs, 30 June 2020
Prigozhin would blame Russian military command for not passing on warnings, but the fault just as likely lay inward; his outfit was as venal and shot through with corruption as his master’s regime.
—Nicolas Niarchos, New York Times, 13 May 2025
In his two most self-consciously political novels, The Secret Agent, about anarchists in London, and Under Western Eyes, about Russian revolutionaries in St. Petersburg and Geneva, almost all the characters are venal or hopelessly naive.
—Adam Hochschild, Foreign Affairs, 13 Feb. 2018
The anti-hero of his book is Sammy Glick, a venal go-getter who leapfrogs from copy boy to agent to producer by stealing credit and backstabbing friends.
—Thomas Doherty, HollywoodReporter, 20 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for venal
Cite this Entry
“Venal.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/venal. Accessed 10 Jul. 2025.
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