as in corrupt
having or showing lowered moral character or standards
the depraved actions of a gang of madmen who had gained control of an entire nation
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in perverted
to lower in character, dignity, or quality
the belief that pornography depraves society as a whole
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of depraved
Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 16 Apr. 2026
Cast against type, Stamos has fun slyly underplaying a thoroughly depraved character.
—Dennis Harvey, Variety, 14 Mar. 2026
Kc Baker, PEOPLE, 2 Apr. 2026
Murdering a teenaged iconic athlete shows how deeply depraved the Iranian leadership is.
—Jackson Thompson, FOXNews.com, 19 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for depraved
Adjective
Taken together, Beef seems to say all of these are representations of a culture so toxically individualistic and ambitious that its members can’t even fathom solidarity as an option to push back against a depraved ruling class.
—Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 16 Apr. 2026
Cast against type, Stamos has fun slyly underplaying a thoroughly depraved character.
—Dennis Harvey, Variety, 14 Mar. 2026
Verb
Online court records show he is charged with first-degree murder dangerous depraved without premeditation.
—Kc Baker, PEOPLE, 2 Apr. 2026
Murdering a teenaged iconic athlete shows how deeply depraved the Iranian leadership is.
—Jackson Thompson, FOXNews.com, 19 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for depraved
Recent Examples of Synonyms for depraved
Adjective
-
Democrats have never run against a candidate like Ken Paxton that is so corrupt that his own party impeached him.—
NBC news,
NBC news,
31 May 2026
-
Our lame-duck governor is happily corrupt and no longer answerable to Floridians.—
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board,
Sun Sentinel,
30 May 2026
Verb
-
The Constitution has been perverted in ways by administrations on both sides of the aisle to facilitate military action.—
Rebecca Noel,
Charlotte Observer,
6 Feb. 2026
-
Organized sports can easily be perverted.—
Louisa Thomas,
New Yorker,
1 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
Even when degraded, enzymes have stable backbones that might be capable of catalyzing reactions, said Sudha Rajamani, an astrobiologist at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune who wasn’t involved in the study.—
Siddhant Pusdekar,
Quanta Magazine,
1 June 2026
-
According to the company, QTT enables highly secure and resilient position, navigation, and timing (PNT) services, helping maintain accurate timing and synchronization even when traditional GPS and radio-frequency signals are unavailable, degraded, or intentionally jammed.—
Bojan Stojkovski,
Interesting Engineering,
30 May 2026
Verb
-
Systems must remain safe not only when components fail naturally, but when data is corrupted, communication is interrupted or execution is violated.—
John Wall,
Forbes.com,
28 May 2026
-
And then Grisebach uses that distaff twist once again, to comment more broadly on the patriarchal nature and gendered violence of power structures corrupted by historical conflict.—
Jessica Kiang,
Variety,
22 May 2026
Adjective
-
One night in April when the boy playing Orlando was home sick and Jamie was waiting for Adele in their private coital chamber, Bromley kept her late to work on the scene where Orlando courts Rosalind playing Ganymede playing Rosalind.—
Jonathan Franzen,
New Yorker,
1 June 2026
-
Recently, she’s begun to feel physically sick due to everything going on in her life and is sharing with us that she’s been struggling with getting up, eating and other simple, everyday things.—
Harriette Cole,
Mercury News,
1 June 2026
Verb
-
Remsing, meanwhile, said that commodity-sensitive currencies like the Norwegian krone, Australian dollar and Brazilian real have also trended strongly as the de-dollarization theme petered out and the euro was weakened by the war.—
Hugh Leask,
CNBC,
5 June 2026
-
That's because some jurisdictions weakened their public health authorities in response to criticism of lockdowns, school closures, mask mandates, vaccine requirements and other COVID-era restrictions.—
Rob Stein,
NPR,
4 June 2026
Verb
-
In the ongoing fight for women’s equal rights, Pawol had proved a female baseball umpire can be second-guessed, proved wrong and humiliated by technology and mocked by howling fans on social media just like a man can.—
Miami Herald,
Miami Herald,
2 June 2026
-
Villanova humiliated UConn, winning 81-61, after building out a 31-point lead.—
Dom Amore,
Hartford Courant,
26 May 2026
Verb
-
The dark comedy follows a wealthy socialite, Stacy (Cherry), and a struggling writer, Becky (Chalotra), who are brought together at a lavish, debauched New York party.—
Lily Ford,
HollywoodReporter,
14 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Depraved.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/depraved. Accessed 7 Jun. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
