Turpitude

//ˈtɜɹpətuːd// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Inherent baseness, depravity or wickedness; corruptness and evilness. countable, uncountable

    "As for the moral turpitude that man unveiled to me, even with tears of penitence, I cannot, even in memory, dwell on it without a start of horror."

  2. 2
    a corrupt or depraved or degenerate act or practice wordnet
  3. 3
    An act evident of such depravity. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
depravitydepravityimmoralityiniquitywickednessabandon

Example

More examples

"As for the moral turpitude that man unveiled to me, even with tears of penitence, I cannot, even in memory, dwell on it without a start of horror."

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French turpitude, from Latin turpitūdō (“baseness, infamy”), from turpis (“foul, base”).

Related phrases

moral turpitude

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