- [uncountable] dishonest or illegal behaviour, especially of people in authority
- allegations of bribery and corruption
- The new district attorney has promised to fight police corruption.
Collocations CrimeCrimeCommitting a crime- commit a crime/a murder/a violent assault/a brutal killing/an armed robbery/fraud
- be involved in terrorism/a suspected arson attack/human trafficking
- engage/participate in criminal activity/illegal practices/acts of mindless vandalism
- steal somebody’s wallet/purse/(British English) mobile phone/(North American English) cell phone
- rob a bank/a person/a tourist
- break into/ (British English) burgle/ (North American English) burglarize a house/a home/an apartment
- hijack a plane/ship/bus
- smuggle drugs/weapons/arms
- traffic people/wildlife/narcotics/cocaine
- launder drug money (through something)
- forge documents/certificates/passports
- take/accept/pay somebody/offer (somebody) a bribe
- run a phishing/an email/an internet scam
- combat/fight crime/terrorism/corruption/drug trafficking
- prevent/stop credit-card fraud/child abuse/software piracy
- deter/stop criminals/burglars/thieves/shoplifters/vandals
- reduce/tackle/crack down on knife/gun/violent/street crime; (especially British English) antisocial behaviour
- foil a bank raid/a terrorist plot
- help/support/protect the victims of crime
- report a crime/a theft/a rape/an attack/(especially British English) an incident to the police
- witness the crime/attack/murder/incident
- investigate a murder/(especially North American English) a homicide/a burglary/a robbery/the alleged incident
- conduct/launch/pursue an investigation (into…); (especially British English) a police/murder inquiry
- investigate/reopen a criminal/murder case
- examine/investigate/find fingerprints at the crime scene/the scene of crime
- collect/gather forensic evidence
- uncover new evidence/a fraud/a scam/a plot/a conspiracy/political corruption/a cache of weapons
- describe/identify a suspect/the culprit/the perpetrator/the assailant/the attacker
- question/interrogate a suspect/witness
- solve/crack the case
Extra ExamplesTopics Crime and punishmentc1, Personal qualitiesc1- He strongly attacked corruption and favouritism in the government.
- She was brought down by a corruption scandal.
- The corruption allegations proved false.
- This police unit was established to fight corruption.
- corruption among high-ranking government officials
- corruption in government
- There were allegations of bribery and corruption.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- endemic
- massive
- rampant
- …
- case
- attack
- combat
- fight
- …
- scandal
- allegation
- charge
- …
- corruption among
- corruption in
- accusations of corruption
- allegations of corruption
- charges of corruption
- …
- [uncountable] the act or effect of making somebody change from moral to immoral standards of behaviour
- He claimed that sex and violence on TV led to the corruption of young people.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- endemic
- massive
- rampant
- …
- case
- attack
- combat
- fight
- …
- scandal
- allegation
- charge
- …
- corruption among
- corruption in
- accusations of corruption
- allegations of corruption
- charges of corruption
- …
- [countable, usually singular, uncountable] the form of a word or phrase that has become changed from its original form in some way; the process by which a word or phrase changes form in this way
- The word ‘holiday’ is a corruption of ‘holy day’.
- He thought it was possible to secure the language from corruption and decay.
- [uncountable] (computing) the effect when data is changed by accident in a computer system due to hardware or software failure
- A failure of a hard disk can cause unrecoverable data corruption.
Word OriginMiddle English: via Old French from Latin corruptio(n-), from corrumpere ‘mar, bribe, destroy’, from cor- ‘altogether’ + rumpere ‘to break’.
Check pronunciation:
corruption