Corrupt

How to spell corrupt

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce corrupt

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does corrupt mean?

1. adjectiveActing dishonestly in exchange for money or power, or marked by such dishonesty.
2. verbTo cause someone to act dishonestly, or to damage data so that it can no longer be used.

Corrupt in a sentence

• adjective

  The journalist exposed a corrupt official who took bribes for contracts.

• verb

  A sudden power cut can corrupt the files on your hard drive.

• adjective

  Voters wanted to remove the corrupt politicians from office.

• verb

  Easy money can quickly corrupt even an honest manager.

Where does corrupt come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin corruptus, the past participle of corrumpere, which meant to destroy, to spoil, or to ruin utterly. It was built from the intensive prefix com- (here softened to cor-, carrying the sense of thoroughly or completely) joined to the verb rumpere, meaning to break or burst. So at its literal root, something corrupt is something that has been thoroughly broken or spoiled. English took the word in during the 1300s, largely by way of Old French, and it quickly attached to moral and political decay as well as physical rot. The same rumpere root sits behind a whole family of familiar words such as rupture, erupt, interrupt, and abrupt, and remembering that the rupt means break is a tidy way to lock in the double r and the -upt spelling.

How the word is built

• cor- (com-: thoroughly, an intensive)
• rupt (from Latin rumpere: to break)