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Corruption vs Nefarious - What's the difference?

corruption | nefarious |

As a noun corruption

is the act of corrupting or of impairing integrity, virtue, or moral principle; the state of being corrupted or debased; loss of purity or integrity; depravity; wickedness; impurity; bribery.

As an adjective nefarious is

sinful, villainous, criminal, or wicked, especially when noteworthy or notorious for such characteristics.

corruption

English

(wikipedia corruption)

Noun

  • The act of corrupting or of impairing integrity, virtue, or moral principle; the state of being corrupted or debased; loss of purity or integrity; depravity; wickedness; impurity; bribery.
  • * (Henry Hallam) The Constitutional History of England
    • It was necessary, by exposing the gross corruptions of monasteries, . . . to exite popular indignation against them.
  • * (George Bancroft)
    • They abstained from some of the worst methods of corruption usual to their party in its earlier days.
  • * {{quote-book, year=2006, author=(Edwin Black), title=Internal Combustion
    • , chapter=1 citation , passage=But electric vehicles and the batteries that made them run became ensnared in corporate scandals, fraud, and monopolistic corruption that shook the confidence of the nation and inspired automotive upstarts.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=(Gary Younge)
    • , volume=188, issue=26, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution , passage=WikiLeaks did not cause these uprisings but it certainly informed them. The dispatches revealed details of corruption and kleptocracy that many Tunisians suspected, but could not prove, and would cite as they took to the streets.}}
  • The act of corrupting or making putrid, or state of being corrupt or putrid; decomposition or disorganization, in the process of putrefaction; putrefaction; deterioration.
  • The product of corruption; putrid matter.
  • The decomposition of biological matter.
  • Bribing.
  • (computing) The destruction of data by manipulation of parts of it, either by deliberate or accidental human action or by imperfections in storage or transmission media.
  • The act of changing, or of being changed, for the worse; departure from what is pure, simple, or correct; as, a corruption of style; corruption in language.
  • (linguistics) A debased or nonstandard form of a word, expression, or text, resulting from misunderstanding, transcription error, mishearing, etc.
  • Something that is evil but is supposed to be good.
  • * (Francis Bacon)
    • The inducing and accelerating of putrefaction is a subject of very universal inquiry; for corruption is a reciprocal to generation.

    Usage notes

    * Corruption, when applied to officers, trustees, etc., signifies the inducing a violation of duty by means of pecuniary considerations. — (Abbott)

    Synonyms

    * (act of corrupting or making putrid) adulteration, contamination, debasement, defilement, dirtying, soiling, tainting * (state of being corrupt or putrid) decay, decomposition, deterioration, putrefaction, rotting * decay, putrescence, rot * (sense) * (state of being corrupted or debased) debasement, depravity, evil, impurity, sinfulness, wickedness * (act of changing for the worse) deterioration, worsening * (act of being changed for the worse) destroying, ruining, spoiling * (departure from what is pure or correct) deterioration, erosion * bastardization

    Derived terms

    * corruption of blood (Webster 1913) ----

    nefarious

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Sinful, villainous, criminal, or wicked, especially when noteworthy or notorious for such characteristics.
  • * 1828 , , The Red Rover , ch. 2:
    • "If the vessel be no fair-trading slaver, nor a common cruiser of his Majesty, it is as tangible as the best man's reasoning, that she may be neither more nor less than the ship of that nefarious pirate the Red Rover."
  • * 1877 , , The Life of Cicero , ch. 9:
    • Mommsen . . . declares that Catiline in particular was "one of the most nefarious' men in that ' nefarious age. His villanies belong to the criminal records, not to history."
  • * 1921 , , The Indiscretions of Archie , ch. 26:
    • The fact that the room was still in darkness made it obvious that something nefarious was afoot. Plainly there was dirty work in preparation at the cross-roads.
  • * 2009 Oct. 14, Monica Davey, " Fact Checker Finds Falsehoods in Remarks," New York Times (retrieved 12 May 2014):
    • “I try to let everyone back here in Minnesota know exactly the nefarious activities that are taking place in Washington.”

    Usage notes

    * Commonly used in contexts involving villainous plans, conspiracies, or actions, as in: :* 1909 , , The Lady of the Shroud , book 7: ::: The whole nefarious scheme was one of the "put-up jobs" which are part of the dirty work of a certain order of statecraft.

    Synonyms

    * evil, iniquitous, sinister, underhanded, vile * See also

    Derived terms

    * nefariously * nefariousness

    References

    *