''turpitude'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260723122144-00-⌔

turpitude - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

turpitude (countable and uncountable, plural turpitudes)

• Inherent baseness, depravity or wickedness; corruptness and evilness.
  • ✤ Synonyms: degeneracy, perversion, wickedness; see also Thesaurus: iniquity
  • ✤ 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.¹
• An act evident of such depravity.
  • ✤ Synonyms: depravity, outrage, wickedness; see also Thesaurus: atrocity

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈtɜː(ɹ)pɪtjuːd/
• (US) IPA: /ˈtɜɹpətuːd/
• Audio (US): 🔊
• Hyphenation: tur‧pi‧tude

Printed 2026-07-23.

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Footnotes

1. 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: ↩