venal
9
9.1
- adjective
- /ˈviːnəl/
- Formal
:
venal
- The politician was criticized for being venal after accepting bribes from corporations.
They're going to point the finger because humans can sometimes be pretty venal and tacky and mean.
- They're going to point the finger because humans can sometimes be pretty venal and tacky and mean.
- I mean, I'm exposing something that that my grandfather did that was venal.
- And but then so it's it's not per SE the workers, though there are plenty of government workers who are venal or cognitively constrained, as Julian put it.
- We were defined as stupid, venal people who, you know, wanted to steal potential potential rapist.
Examples
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Those venal villains are committing the biggest heist Gotham City has ever seen.
-
If it goes away, what you get is the venal, corrupt, shallow worldview of our elites.
Blog text (29) -
One need not assume that those affected are especially venal in order to see the point of this.
Academic text (1990) -
Everything they did would turn out badly because they were bad, venal people who deserved what they got.
Blog text (26) -
I can get venal, you know, we're, we're all flawed.
-
The public and Congress are terminally stupid, venal, and corrupt.
Blog text (23) -
The minister, like a good number of his venal and incompetent colleagues, is undoubtedly a buffoon of the highest order.
Blog text (19) -
And Mugabe, the poster child for venal leadership, is at the root of the country's poverty.
Academic text (2010) -
Certainly, progress is slow; we get big setbacks from racist people and venal politicians who live by soundbites.
Blog text (4) -
Most often the issue has been fictitious billing, of which he said the motives ranged from "venal to just carelessness."
Academic text (1994)
Synonyms
291
4.4
Willing to act dishonestly to gain money or power
128
2.5
Likely to lie or cheat to get something for yourself
25
7.5
A person or company that is not honest and tries to take advantage of others
Antonyms
How Honest
Surface Forms
Morphology
venal = ven + al
The root 'ven' is not a standalone English word and the suffix '-al' does not allow learners to derive the specific meaning 'willing to be bribed'; the formation is from Latin and not transparently analyzable by average learners.
Etymology
Venal comes from the Latin word venalis, which means 'for sale'. It is the same root as common English words like vendor and vend ('to sell'), so a venal person is like someone who is 'for sale' and will take money to do dishonest things.