immoral

Etymology

It is formed from English im- + moral, with the negative prefix in- in its assimilated form.^[2][3][4][5] The OED compares French immoral, recorded in the 18th century in Raynal.^[2] Moral is from Old French moral and mōrālis, from mōs (“custom, manner”).^[6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Not consistent with moral law or standards; morally evil, unprincipled, dissolute: 1660, in Roger Coke's Elements of Power and Subjection.^[2][7] Etymonline and Dictionary.com date it to the 1650s.^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word meant contrary to morality, and it came to be used especially of sexual conduct, for unchaste or licentious.^[2][9][10] A rarer sense, not having a moral nature, non-moral, is recorded only in a sermon of Bishop Sherlock before 1761;^[2] that meaning is now carried by amoral.^[8] Johnson (1755) defined it as lacking regard for natural religion, and contrary to honesty.^[11] In legal language, Etymonline notes, it tends to mean merely contrary to the common good or to reasonable order.^[3] The noun immoral, an immoral person, is recorded from 1900.^[2]

Timeline

• 1660 – not conforming to moral law; morally evil, dissolute.^[2][7]
• a1761 – non-moral (obsolete and rare).^[2]
• 1900 – noun, an immoral person.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Contrary to accepted moral principles; wicked or corrupt: an immoral scheme to cheat pensioners.^{[10][7][6][2]}
2. Sexually dissolute or licentious.^[10][9][7]
3. Tending to corrupt, or earned by corrupt means: immoral earnings.^[10][4]

Word family

• immorally
• immoralism
• immoralist
• immoralize

Related words

• moral
• amoral
• immorality
• morals
• mores

Usage notes

Dictionary.com distinguishes immoral, of conduct that breaks moral standards and sometimes licentious, from abandoned, of a person sunk in wickedness, and depraved, of a character that seeks evil.^[8] It also warns against confusing immoral with amoral, nonmoral and unmoral, which mean lacking any morals, good or bad, though being amoral can be judged as harshly as being immoral.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b Webster's New World College Dictionary (2014), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.