as in degraded
having or showing lowered moral character or standards
corrupt businessmen who are out to fleece the public corrupt business practices that should be investigated
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
1
as in to rot
to go through decomposition
a dead mouse corrupting in the walls produced a terrible smell
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in to degrade
to lower in character, dignity, or quality
some observers believe that grossly violent movies corrupt the people who watch them as well as the people who make them
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in to bribe
to influence someone with a bribe
he bragged about having corrupted half of the officials on the city council
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of corrupt
Charlotte Phillipp, PEOPLE, 28 Sep. 2025
This was the failure of a corrupt leadership that lied to Congress and to the American people about what really happened.
—Emma Marsden, MSNBC Newsweek, 28 Sep. 2025
Stephen Clark, ArsTechnica, 12 Sep. 2025
The baffling Windows 11 update bug that corrupted SSDs now appears to be linked to storage drives running pre-release firmware.
—PC Magazine, 9 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for corrupt
Adjective
Our institutions are failing us — either corrupt or underfunded, gutted and useless — and we’re absorbed with stories of characters that manage to save themselves, and on their own terms.
—Charlotte Phillipp, PEOPLE, 28 Sep. 2025
This was the failure of a corrupt leadership that lied to Congress and to the American people about what really happened.
—Emma Marsden, MSNBC Newsweek, 28 Sep. 2025
Verb
The additional time exposed to harsh radiation is, not surprisingly, corrupting JunoCam's images.
—Stephen Clark, ArsTechnica, 12 Sep. 2025
The baffling Windows 11 update bug that corrupted SSDs now appears to be linked to storage drives running pre-release firmware.
—PC Magazine, 9 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for corrupt
Recent Examples of Synonyms for corrupt
Adjective
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At the same time, suicide-attack FPVs incorporate AI navigation for autonomous terminal guidance under degraded control.—
Kapil Kajal,
Interesting Engineering,
1 Oct. 2025
-
Under her leadership, the NYBG’s research team has expanded to 81 projects across 79 countries to conserve disappearing plant species, restore degraded ecosystems, and breed crops to withstand drought, sea level rise and extreme heat under climate change.—
Eduardo Garcia,
Forbes.com,
18 Sep. 2025
Verb
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In most parts of the country, tender summer bulbs will either freeze or rot in the ground during winter.—
Erica Browne Grivas,
Better Homes & Gardens,
5 Oct. 2025
-
Garbage, rotting food with bugs and clothing stacked close to the ceiling were also seen in most areas of the house.—
Matthew Cupelli,
Cincinnati Enquirer,
4 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Douglass advises against starting from the assumption that people arrive somewhere and immediately begin to degrade the environment.—
Ari Daniel,
NPR,
8 Oct. 2025
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This process degrades the mirrors' reflectivity and clarity over time, so technicians regularly recoat and polish them to ensure the best precision.—
Kenna Hughes-Castleberry,
Space.com,
6 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The scandal exposed how some wealthy families cheated and bribed to secure spots for their children at elite universities, sparking nationwide outrage over denied opportunities for more deserving students.—
Hanna Park,
CNN Money,
3 Oct. 2025
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In May, Coinbase revealed that cybercriminals had bribed a few of its overseas customer support agents to leak customers' personal data.—
Liz Napolitano,
CNBC,
19 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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But as that incident demonstrated, even a small number of controllers calling in sick can have a big impact.—
Joel Rose,
NPR,
2 Oct. 2025
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Austin Hedges gets sick to his stomach before postseason games.—
Zack Meisel,
New York Times,
2 Oct. 2025
Verb
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For another, there’s the DESI data, our best large-scale structure data at present, which seems to slightly favor the presence of evolving (and, in particular, decaying or weakening) dark energy.—
Ethan Siegel,
Big Think,
3 Oct. 2025
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The new specimen is highly significant because its near-perfect state preserved the soft tissues, which usually decay over time.—
Mrigakshi Dixit,
Interesting Engineering,
29 Sep. 2025
Verb
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The show also subverted what the traditional mother-daughter relationship, and the role of a mother in general, can look like in the modern world.—
Anna Tingley,
Variety,
3 Oct. 2025
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The film examines how boundaries are inscribed and looks to plants as models for subverting systems of control.—
Matt Grobar,
Deadline,
30 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Most playoff games are often decided by big moments and managerial decisions, not crooked numbers and tired relievers.—
Jon Greenberg,
New York Times,
2 Oct. 2025
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The show, which followed a crooked New Mexican lawyer, played by Bob Odenkirk, was an archly funny drama, shot partly in gritty black-and-white.—
Rachel Syme,
New Yorker,
29 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Corrupt.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/corrupt. Accessed 10 Oct. 2025.
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