as in shamelessness
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Recent Examples of venality
Advertisement This is not the first time that Milei, who rose to power in part with attacks on the venality of Argentina’s elite, has been tarred with corruption accusations.
—
Ian Bremmer, Time, 10 Oct. 2025
Humor savors an infirmity — a foible, a failing, a venality, a flaw.
—Big Think, 23 Sep. 2025
Somehow, the upper hand never lingers long with Sally and Barnaby, drolly played by Gunning and Corden as a conniving Tweedledee and Tweedledum, loyal to no one and convinced their venality is justified by their father’s history of terrible parenting.
—David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 9 Sep. 2025
The New Yorker’s Talk writer was similarly blinkered and callous, treating Grey like a consenting partner and Chaplin as a dual victim, of his mother-in-law’s venality and of Middle America’s moral prejudices.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 25 Aug. 2025
Ian Bremmer, Time, 10 Oct. 2025
Humor savors an infirmity — a foible, a failing, a venality, a flaw.
—Big Think, 23 Sep. 2025
Somehow, the upper hand never lingers long with Sally and Barnaby, drolly played by Gunning and Corden as a conniving Tweedledee and Tweedledum, loyal to no one and convinced their venality is justified by their father’s history of terrible parenting.
—David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 9 Sep. 2025
The New Yorker’s Talk writer was similarly blinkered and callous, treating Grey like a consenting partner and Chaplin as a dual victim, of his mother-in-law’s venality and of Middle America’s moral prejudices.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 25 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for venality
Noun
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The world has gotten a glimpse of the fawning, skeezy shamelessness of his famous hangers-on, but not enough to criminally implicate them.—
Charlie Warzel,
The Atlantic,
14 Feb. 2026
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But, in an interview given in October, 2001, Navarro attempted to fill, with what sounds like shamelessness, the gap between himself and his alter ego.—
Ian Parker,
New Yorker,
22 Dec. 2025
Noun
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The profligacy, for sure, with Everton contriving to surrender a 1-0 lead in the space of eight remarkable second-half minutes in which defender Jake O’Brien was also sent off.—
Patrick Boyland,
New York Times,
11 Feb. 2026
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Raising its own bar for college sports profligacy, the University of Texas’s athletic department reported spending $375.9 million in operating expenses in fiscal 2025—a $50 million jump over its previous, record-setting year.—
Daniel Libit,
Sportico.com,
22 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Investors who are particularly concerned about currency debasement or geopolitical instability — both of which have driven gold's price run in recent years — may also find the physical gold component meaningful.—
Angelica Leicht,
CBS News,
5 Mar. 2026
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Over and over, Colin takes stock of his own debasement.—
Amy Nicholson,
Los Angeles Times,
5 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Xi in recent years has supercharged an effort aimed at rooting out military corruption — since 2022, some 100 top officers have been dismissed or sidelined, a recent study estimated.—
semafor.com,
semafor.com,
3 Mar. 2026
-
Political parties have pledged to amplify the voices of younger voters, promising to tackle corruption and improve governance.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
3 Mar. 2026
Noun
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With chocolate on top of chocolate, this recipe offers double the decadence, but requires a bit more hands-on time.—
Kaitlyn Yarborough,
Southern Living,
15 Feb. 2026
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Consumers also love the decadence and richness of the chocolate combined with the freshness and sweetness of the strawberries.—
Daryl Austin,
USA Today,
14 Feb. 2026
Noun
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The result has been a rapid and systematic degradation of Iran’s clout across the Middle East over the past 2½ years, a seismic change that led directly to this weekend’s devastating attacks on Iran by the United States and Israel.—
Adam Geller,
Fortune,
2 Mar. 2026
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Aquatic plants, invertebrates, fish, amphibians, and other wildlife are harmed by water quality degradation from road salt treatments, which have further impacts on the local ecosystem (and human health, when our water supply gets saltier).—
Miri Talabac,
Baltimore Sun,
2 Mar. 2026
Noun
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One night, Earnshaw goes out for his evening’s gambling and degeneracy and returns the next morning with a new resident for the household.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
11 Feb. 2026
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The shoot gives Henry a chance to argue with his uncle, who acknowledges that Henry’s recurrent depression is real — he’s previously been prescribed lithium — but has no patience for his nephew’s degeneracy.—
Amanda Whiting,
Vulture,
19 Jan. 2026
Noun
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This garish cavalcade of perversions, which just premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, should have been shocking and transgressive; the pieces are certainly there.—
Bilge Ebiri,
Vulture,
15 Feb. 2026
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Under the many chaotic, hypocritical perversions of the Trump administration, this is now topsy-turvy, with masked ICE agents — federal law enforcement — terrorizing and killing our citizens.—
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board,
Sun Sentinel,
4 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Venality.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/venality. Accessed 7 Mar. 2026.
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