corrupt

dishonest or spoiled by moral damage

Roots

  • com-: with, together, complete, or intensified
  • rump / rupt: break, burst, or break apart

Other words with the rump / rupt root

  • abrupt: sudden or unexpectedly broken off
  • corruption: dishonesty or moral decay in a system
  • disrupt: to interrupt or throw into disorder
  • disruption: break in order or normal flow
  • erupt: to burst out suddenly
  • eruption: a sudden bursting out
  • interrupt: to break into or stop the flow of something

Corrupt is breakage inside trust, law, or purity: something sound has been spoiled.

The corrupt official treated public money like his own.

Corrupt belongs to the break family, but the break is moral or structural. A corrupt system still stands on the outside, but something inside it has broken from honesty.

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