🟤 Spotted or stained 🟤 To stain 🕳️ Morally stained 🕳️ To tarnish

maculate

9.9

Having a damaged reputation because of bad actions

adjective
/ˈmæk.jə.lɪt/

Literature

: maculado

Many saw the leader’s once spotless reputation become maculate following the scandal.

Examples

She tried to rebuild trust, but her maculate past haunted her career.
The judge considered him maculate after the corruption allegations were proven.
His record is maculate!
She is maculate.
The politician's maculate history was called into question after the recent allegations of fraud.
Despite his efforts to present himself as virtuous, his maculate actions revealed a lack of integrity.
Her maculate behavior in the meeting was overshadowed by the revelations of her dishonesty.

Synonyms

impure

vsmaculate

NSFW

20 6.0

Not morally clean because it is corrupt or obscene

is specifically about a moral blemish, not the broader lack of purity

morally bankrupt

vsmaculate

7 7.4

A person, group, or action that does not care about right and wrong

is milder, denoting a single moral stain rather than total absence of morals

defiled

vsmaculate

8.4

Made morally dirty, especially a place or thing people respect

is a moral blemish or stain rather than full corruption

Antonyms

pure

212 1.4

Morally good and not involved in sexual activity

virtuous

35 4.3

Being morally good and doing what is right

How Moral

upright

15 4.0

moral

∞ 3.7

maculate

Literature

9.9

immoral

144 4.6

corrupt

291 4.4

Surface Forms

maculate positive

Morphology

maculate = macula (opaque) = macul + ate

The moral/figurative sense is derived from the same root but requires knowledge of the Latin-derived combining form, which is not transparent to average learners.

Etymology

Maculate comes from the Latin macula, meaning 'stain', and people use the idea of a 'stain' to talk about a person's bad actions or reputation. That's why maculate can mean morally stained or impure.