English Reference

Word

corrupted

Phoneticscor·rupt·ed

US/kɝˈəptɪd/

UK/kəɹˈʌptɪd/

Definitions

01dishonest or immoral

B2

adj. behaving in a dishonest or immoral way, especially by taking money to do something wrong.

adj. marked by immorality, depravity, or a lack of integrity; frequently used to describe officials who abuse their power for personal gain.

“The corrupted officials were eventually caught taking bribes from the construction company.”

“The investigation revealed a corrupted system where political influence was routinely sold to the highest bidder.”

Usage

Often used to describe people in positions of power or entire institutions.

02damaged computer data

B2 · Computing

adj. describes a computer file that has errors and cannot be opened or used correctly.

adj. referring to data or software that has become unreliable or unusable due to errors in transmission or storage.

“I couldn't finish my report because the file became corrupted after the power went out.”

“The database administrator spent hours attempting to recover the corrupted records after the server crash.”

Technical

Usage

Commonly used with nouns like 'file', 'data', 'database', or 'disk'.

Synonyms

damagedbrokenunreadable

Antonyms

Real-World Examples

“The problem happened "in the space of a millisecond", Nats said, leading to the system producing corrupted data.”
BBC News · 18 Sept 2026
“Culture evolves, she says, and practices can be diluted or corrupted and she is showing what has happened to this one.”
BBC News · 14 Aug 2026

Domain

Computing

This entry

Level
B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency
Frequent
Updated

Scan code

englishreference.com/q/corrupted

English Reference