Corruption

How to spell corruption

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce corruption

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does corruption mean?

1. nounDishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery.
2. nounThe process of physical or material decay, or the alteration of something from its original state.

Corruption in a sentence

• The investigation exposed widespread corruption among senior officials.

• The museum stored the manuscripts carefully to prevent their corruption.

• The new agency was created to fight corruption in public contracts.

• Data corruption on the old drive made several files impossible to open.

Where does corruption come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Corruption comes from the Latin corruptio, a noun built on the verb corrumpere, which meant 'to break thoroughly', 'to destroy', or 'to spoil'. That verb joined the intensifying prefix com- (here softened to cor-, meaning 'thoroughly' or 'completely') with rumpere, the Latin verb 'to break'. Originally it described physical decay and the spoiling of food or flesh, then broadened to the moral idea of a person or institution being broken away from honesty. English took it through Old French in the 1300s, keeping both the literal sense of rot and the figurative sense of dishonest conduct. The same rumpere root surfaces in many familiar relatives such as rupture, interrupt, and abrupt, and noticing that shared 'rupt' spine is the surest way to remember the double r in corruption.

How the word is built

• cor- (from com-: thoroughly)
• rupt (from rumpere: to break)
• -ion (noun suffix)