Corruption is dishonest or illegal behavior, especially by people in power, such as bribery, cheating, or abusing authority for personal gain.
From Latin “corruptio,” meaning “spoiling, ruining,” from “corrumpere” (to break completely, to spoil). It originally referred to moral or physical decay before becoming strongly tied to political and financial dishonesty.
The word literally means something like ‘being broken from the inside.’ That’s why corruption is so dangerous: systems can look fine on the outside while quietly rotting within. It’s like moral rust that eats away at trust and fairness.
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