cor ‧ rup ‧ tion /kəˈrʌpʃ ə n/ BrE AmE noun
1 . [uncountable] dishonest, illegal, or immoral behaviour, especially from someone with power:
officials charged with bribery and corruption
The investigation uncovered widespread corruption within the police force.
political/official corruption
2 . [countable usually singular] technical a changed form of something, for example a word:
The word ‘Thursday’ is a corruption of ‘Thor’s Day’.
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COLLOCATIONS
■ ADJECTIVES/NOUN + corruption
▪ rife (=very common)
Corruption was rife in the south of the country.
▪ endemic (=always present)
Firstly, we need to tackle the corruption that is endemic in the system.
▪ political/financial corruption
It is a country with a long history of political corruption.
▪ widespread corruption
The election campaign was marred by widespread corruption.
▪ alleged corruption (=that someone is accused of, but that is not proved)
He is about to be investigated for alleged corruption.
▪ government/police corruption
There has been plenty of evidence of police corruption.
▪ high-level corruption (=among people at a high level in society or government)
He has promised to end high-level corruption.
▪ moral corruption
Some people see television as a cause of moral corruption in young people.
■ verbs
▪ fight/tackle corruption (=try to stop it)
He criticized the government for failing to fight corruption in high places.
▪ root out corruption (=find and stop it)
a new campaign to root out corruption
▪ stamp out corruption (=stop it completely)
The party's chairman called for action to stamp out corruption.
▪ expose/uncover corruption (=show that it exists)
The newspaper prided itself on exposing corruption in government.
■ phrases
▪ allegations/accusations/charges of corruption
He has strongly denied allegations of corruption.
▪ bribery and corruption
the major crimes of bribery and corruption