What does "debasement" mean?

The act of debasing or the state of being debased; a lowering or degradation, especially in character or quality.

What is a synonym for "debasement"?

Common synonyms include: adulteration, degradation, abandon, abasement, abjection, abuse.

Pronounced //dɪˈbeɪsmənt//.

//dɪˈbeɪsmənt// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Noun

1
The act of debasing or the state of being debased; a lowering or degradation, especially in character or quality. countable, uncountable
"His large water-dog was acquainted with the fact, and upon the approach of his master, betrayed his sense of inferiority by a sanctity of deportment, a debasement of the ears, and a dropping of the lower jaw not altogether unworthy of a dog."
2
changing to a lower state (a less respected state) wordnet
3
The lowering of the value of a currency by reducing the amount of valuable metal in the coins. countable, uncountable
4
being mixed with extraneous material; the product of adulterating wordnet

"Currencies throughout history have fallen victim to debasement. Today, we avoid this problem by omitting the precious metals altogether."

From debase + -ment.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.