degeneracy
2
9.3
- noun
- /dɪˈdʒɛnəresi/
- Offensive
:
depravación
- In the Bible, Babylon plays a negative role as the center of human ambition, corruption, and degeneracy; the fall of Babylon is depicted with glee and with much emphasis on the material goods and false idols that will be destroyed.
- moral degeneracy
- sexual degeneracy
- mental degeneracy
You have women, gambling, drugs, degeneracy, hedonism.
- You have women, gambling, drugs, degeneracy, hedonism.
- And as a Catholic, obviously I disagree with the part about polygamy and all of this degeneracy that he is pushing.
- She did look like one of the cast of kind of degeneracy.
- I know that they do two different things, but they're still influencing degeneracy.
Examples
-
Freedom gained can become freedom lost—lost by degrees, by default, and by moral degeneracy.
Academic text (1993) -
The community experienced a troubling sense of degeneracy as crime rates increased and social cohesion weakened.
-
Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid.
Blog text (34) -
Everywhere I go on this island, it seems to me I find degeneracy.
-
Climate, land, morality, and man were primitive, and Europeans who traveled to America were condemned to inherit this degeneracy.
Academic text (1998) -
In the throes of moral and intellectual bankruptcy, the actual monarchy in Spain suffered from clear degeneracy.
Academic text (1998) -
Concerned citizens organized a meeting to discuss the degeneracy of local values and the need for positive change.
-
Many believe that the degeneracy of ethical standards in politics has led to widespread public distrust.
Synonyms
36
4.6
A situation where people lose moral principles and act badly
33
6.8
The process of making land, water, or buildings worse over time
25
8.8
A state of very bad moral behavior
20
8.1
A decline in morals when people enjoy luxury and pleasure too much
8
7.5
A process of becoming worse in condition, quality, or morals
3
7.4
Making something less pure or valuable by adding bad material
2
7.1
A complete lack of care about right and wrong in actions
1
8.3
A slow decline from a higher to a lower state in quality or power
1
9.7
A state of being morally bad, shown by lying, stealing, or hurting others
1
9.9
A state in which people or a society stop caring about right and wrong and behave badly
A loss of moral and cultural values when people live only for pleasure
A slow fall in condition, status, or behaviour
Antonyms
How Corrupt
Surface Forms
Morphology
degeneracy = degenerate (transparent) = degenerate + acy
The noun is a standard nominalization of the adjective 'degenerate' (degenerate -> degeneracy), so the meaning 'state of decline' follows predictably.
Etymology
Degeneracy comes from the parts de- 'down' and genus 'birth' or 'kind', the same root you see in generation and gene. So degeneracy suggests moving 'down' from the original kind — a fall or loss in moral, ethical, or intellectual quality.