depravity

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dəˈpɹævɪti/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ævɪti

Noun

depravity (countable and uncountable, plural depravities)

1. (uncountable) The state or condition of being depraved; moral debasement.
   • 1850, Herman Melville, chapter 34, in White Jacket, or, The World on a Man-of-War:

     Depravity in the oppressed is no apology for the oppressor.

   • 2000, “Introduction”, in The Reign of Edward III‎, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 10:

     Walsingham was not blind to Edward’s failings, and attributed the political problems of the 1370s directly to the old king’s moral depravity.

2. (countable) A particular depraved act or trait.
   • 1914, Julian Hawthorne, chapter 16, in The Subterranean Brotherhood:

     There were men there who had committed merciless robberies, cruel murders, heartless swindles, abominable depravities.

3. (uncountable, Christian theology) Inborn corruption, entailing the belief that every facet of human nature has been polluted, defiled, and contaminated by sin.
   • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 8, in The Scarlet Letter:

     Here is a child of three years old, and she cannot tell who made her! Without question, she is equally in the dark as to her soul, its present depravity, and future destiny!

Synonyms

• wickedness

Derived terms

Related terms

• depravation
• depravedness

Translations

References

• depravity in An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, 1828.
• “depravity”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “depravity”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• "depravity" in the Wordsmyth Dictionary-Thesaurus (Wordsmyth, 2002)
• "depravity" in Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (Cambridge University Press, 2007)
• Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)
• Random House Webster's Unabridged Electronic Dictionary (1987-1996)

Anagrams

• varityped