CORRUPTING Synonyms: 143 Similar and Opposite Words

corrupting

verb

present participle of corrupt

as in decomposing

to go through decomposition a dead mouse corrupting in the walls produced a terrible smell

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in degrading

to lower in character, dignity, or quality some observers believe that grossly violent movies corrupt the people who watch them as well as the people who make them

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in bribing

to influence someone with a bribe he bragged about having corrupted half of the officials on the city council

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of corrupting The Apology is Plato’s version of the speech of self-defense Socrates gives when he is tried by the city of Athens for corrupting the youth and not believing in the gods. — Agnes Callard, The New York Review of Books, 18 Aug. 2026 The judge also said that Nine PBS must find a third party, such as a former OSS worker, who can help retrieve the data within 30 days and without sharing or corrupting data belonging to other OSS clients. — Scharon Harding, ArsTechnica, 14 Aug. 2026 Validation rules, schema standards and completeness checks at the entry point prevent bad master data from corrupting everything downstream. — Jacqueline Destefano-Tangorra, Forbes.com, 4 Aug. 2026 Character also involves standing up to people who are bankrupting and corrupting this country. — CBS News, 31 May 2026 An early discussion about social contracts comes down to us in Plato’s dialogue Crito in which Socrates, condemned to death for allegedly corrupting the youth, refused an offer to escape from prison. — George G. Szpiro, Big Think, 9 Apr. 2026 Meanwhile, the Pima County Sheriff Office investigating Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance is facing troubles of its own, as a former sheriff has accused current leadership of ‘corrupting’ the crime scene, and a deputy has been arrested and fired on a kidnapping charge. — Giulia Carbonaro, MSNBC Newsweek, 31 Mar. 2026 For Hildegard of Bingen, the German mystic, scientist, composer, and philosopher, women’s maternal bodies were not corrupting and degrading, but strong, nurturing, and creative. — Literary Hub, 18 Mar. 2026 Richard Pazdur, a longtime cancer drug regulator, retired from the CDER director post in December due to concerns that political officials were corrupting the agency’s scientific process. — Lizzy Lawrence, STAT, 6 Mar. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for corrupting

Verb

But the last inspection was in October, 10 months before dozens of decomposing bodies were found at the South Chicago Chapel funeral home.

— Megan De Mar, CBS News, 17 Aug. 2026
And just over a year after that, the Morgans landed back in the news after authorities found 56 decomposing corpses inside another one of their businesses, South Deering’s South Chicago Chapel.

— Caroline Kubzansky, Chicago Tribune, 17 Aug. 2026

Definition of decomposing

Verb

For instance, excess ions fail to enter the graphite quickly enough and form performance-degrading metallic deposits on the surface (lithium plating).

— Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 24 Aug. 2026
The Tate brothers built a global following, became extremely wealthy, and gained cultural and political influence by degrading and harming women.

— Jodi Bondi Norgaard, Chicago Tribune, 24 Aug. 2026

Definition of degrading

Verb

At a press conference Thursday afternoon, LeVota denied the allegations but identified Legislator DaRon McGee as the candidate that federal prosecutors are accusing LeVota of bribing.

— Ilana Arougheti, Kansas City Star, 8 Aug. 2026
Rand Paul, in particular, seems bent on getting Fauci prosecuted for allegedly bribing and coercing intelligence officials to aid in his cover-up.

— Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 28 July 2026

Definition of bribing

Verb

With all the rain from storms recently, our streets and roads are disintegrating faster.

— Chicago Tribune, Chicago Tribune, 23 Aug. 2026
In just four years, Keegan had spurred a disintegrating club into a united entity known for its energy and style, cherished as the ‘Entertainers’.

— Michael Walker, New York Times, 22 Aug. 2026

Definition of disintegrating

Verb

The show also pokes fun at the late 1990s and early 2000s liberal cultural consensus that was upheld in other popular culture of the time while also both replicating and subverting stereotypes of suburban Southern white Americans.

— Jordana Rosenfeld, Encyclopedia Britannica, 24 Aug. 2026
The state alleges OpenAI's rapid success stems from deceit and exploitation, causing widespread harm to Floridians and subverting public order.

— Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 19 Aug. 2026

Definition of subverting

Verb

Still, with more than 40,000 industry jobs lost in the past few years, soundstages and vendor storefronts sitting empty, and lucrative overseas incentives seducing even more production away, things are bleak in town right now.

— Dominic Patten, Deadline, 6 Aug. 2026
The young women acted as underground assassins, seducing Nazi officers, luring them into the woods and killing them.

— Emily Zemler, Rolling Stone, 28 July 2026

Definition of seducing

Verb

Call to action In September 2025, NASA put out a call to action to save Swift, whose orbit was decaying quickly due to high solar activity.

— Leonard David, Space.com, 27 Aug. 2026
The $30-million mission aimed to raise Swift from a rapidly decaying orbit worsened by intense solar activity, preserving a telescope that spent two decades tracking cosmic explosions.

— Marcia Dunn, Los Angeles Times, 23 Aug. 2026

Definition of decaying

Verb

Throughout this year, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has been weakening the Navy’s leadership by blocking the promotion of nearly 20 admirals.

— Andrea N. Goldstein, The Atlantic, 28 Aug. 2026
Wheat futures hit their highest level in more than three years as the war in Ukraine strained supplies, further weakening the global food system.

— Jeronimo Gonzalez, semafor.com, 28 Aug. 2026

Definition of weakening

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corruptible

corrupting

corruption

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“Corrupting.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/corrupting. Accessed 2 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of corrupting

verb

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