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venal

UK/ˈviːnəl/US/ˈviːnəl/
adjectiveC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,079 of 15,258neutral

Venal means willing to be bribed. A venal official, venal politicians, venal and corrupt.

It describes a person or an office rather than an act, so a venal official is one who can be bought. It is a different word from venial, which means a pardonable sin, and the two are confused constantly.

Definitions of venal

  1. 1adjectivevenalWilling to be bribed.C2

    “The venal judge accepted cash from anyone who wanted to win their case.”

venal is a quality.

Where it comes from

Latin venalis means for sale, from venum, a thing offered for sale.

  1. Latin

    vēna — vein

  2. English, today

    venal

From Latin vēna (“vein”) al.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

venal in the wild

  • The position was venal, being freely bought, sold and inherited, subject to payments to the King.

    Président à mortier

  • Carcetti is an ambitious and venal Baltimore politician who begins the series with a seat on the city council.

    Tommy Carcetti

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.