corruption

noun9

1. •
   the use of power in a way that is not honest, as when an official takes secret money
2. •
   The act of corrupting or of impairing integrity, virtue, or moral principle; the state of being corrupted or debased; loss of purity or integrity.

   • It was necessary, by exposing the gross corruptions of monasteries, […] to exite popular indignation against them. — 1827
3. •
   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.
4. •
   The act of changing, or of being changed, for the worse; departure from what is pure, simple, or correct.
5. •
   Something originally good or pure that has turned evil or impure; a perversion.

   • They admitted that there were corruptions in the Church of Scotland, but denied that these corruptions were such as to render a separation from her necessary. — 1841
6. •
   A nonstandard form of a word, expression, or text, especially when resulting from misunderstanding, transcription error, or mishearing. (See a usage note about this sense.)

   • The estate is called Carfax, no doubt a corruption of the old Quatre Face, as the house is four-sided, agreeing with the cardinal points of the compass. — 1897
7. •
   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 inducing and accelerating of putrefaction is a subject of very universal inquiry; for corruption is a reciprocal to generation. — 1627
8. •
   The product of corruption; putrid matter.
9. •
   The decomposition of biological matter.