Adjacent Words

Iniquity definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

INIQ'UITY, n. [L. iniquitas; in and oequitas, equity.]
1. Injustice; unrighteousness; a deviation from rectitude; as the iniquity of war; the iniquity of the slave trade.
2. Want of rectitude in principle; as a malicious prosecution originating in the iniquity of the author.
3. A particular deviation from rectitude; a sin or crime; wickedness; any act of injustice.
Your iniquities have separated between you and your God. Isaiah 59.
4. Original want of holiness or depravity.
I was shapen in iniquity. Psalms 51.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: absence of moral or spiritual values; "the powers of darkness" [syn: iniquity, wickedness, darkness, dark]
2: morally objectionable behavior [syn: evil, immorality, wickedness, iniquity]
3: an unjust act [syn: injustice, unfairness, iniquity, shabbiness]

Merriam Webster's

noun (plural -ties) Etymology: Middle English iniquite, from Anglo-French iniquité, from Latin iniquitat-, iniquitas, from iniquus uneven, from in- + aequus equal Date: 14th century 1. gross injustice ; wickedness 2. a wicked act or thing ; sin

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. (pl. -ies) 1 wickedness; unrighteousness. 2 a gross injustice. Derivatives: iniquitous adj. iniquitously adv. iniquitousness n. Etymology: ME f. OF iniquité f. L iniquitas -tatis f. iniquus (as IN-(1), aequus just)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Iniquity In*iq"ui*ty, n.; pl. Iniquities. [OE. iniquitee, F. iniquit['e], L. iniquitas, inequality, unfairness, injustice. See Iniquous.] 1. Absence of, or deviation from, just dealing; want of rectitude or uprightness; gross injustice; unrighteousness; wickedness; as, the iniquity of bribery; the iniquity of an unjust judge. Till the world from his perfection fell Into all filth and foul iniquity. --Spenser. 2. An iniquitous act or thing; a deed of injustice o? unrighteousness; a sin; a crime. --Milton. Your iniquities have separated between you and your God. --Is. lix. 2. 3. A character or personification in the old English moralities, or moral dramas, having the name sometimes of one vice and sometimes of another. See Vice. Acts old Iniquity, and in the fit Of miming gets the opinion of a wit. --B. Jonson.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Vice Vice, n. [F., from L. vitium.] 1. A defect; a fault; an error; a blemish; an imperfection; as, the vices of a political constitution; the vices of a horse. Withouten vice of syllable or letter. --Chaucer. Mark the vice of the procedure. --Sir W. Hamilton. 2. A moral fault or failing; especially, immoral conduct or habit, as in the indulgence of degrading appetites; customary deviation in a single respect, or in general, from a right standard, implying a defect of natural character, or the result of training and habits; a harmful custom; immorality; depravity; wickedness; as, a life of vice; the vice of intemperance. I do confess the vices of my blood. --Shak. Ungoverned appetite . . . a brutish vice. --Milton. When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, The post of honor is a private station. --Addison. 3. The buffoon of the old English moralities, or moral dramas, having the name sometimes of one vice, sometimes of another, or of Vice itself; -- called also Iniquity. Note: This character was grotesquely dressed in a cap with ass's ears, and was armed with a dagger of lath: one of his chief employments was to make sport with the Devil, leaping on his back, and belaboring him with the dagger of lath till he made him roar. The Devil, however, always carried him off in the end. --Nares. How like you the Vice in the play? . . . I would not give a rush for a Vice that has not a wooden dagger to snap at everybody. --B. Jonson. Syn: Crime; sin; iniquity; fault. See Crime.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(iniquities) You can refer to wicked actions or very unfair situations as iniquity. (FORMAL) He rails against the iniquities of capitalism... N-VAR

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

in-ik'-wi-ti (`awon; anomia): In the Old Testament of the 11 words translated "iniquity," by far the most common and important is `awon (about 215 times). Etymologically, it is customary to explain it as meaning literally "crookedness," "perverseness," i.e. evil regarded as that which is not straight or upright, moral distortion (from `iwwah, "to bend," "make crooked," "pervert"). Driver, however (following Lagarde), maintains that two roots, distinct in Arabic, have been confused in Hebrew, one equals "to bend," "pervert" (as above), and the other equals "to err," "go astray"; that `awon is derived from the latter, and consequently expresses the idea of error, deviation from the right path, rather than that of perversion (Driver, Notes on Sam, 135 note) Whichever etymology is adopted, in actual usage it has three meanings which almost imperceptibly pass into each other:

(1) iniquity,

(2) guilt of iniquity,

(3) punishment of iniquity.

Primarily, it denotes "not an action, but the character of an action" (Oehler), and is so distinguished from "sin" (chaTTa'th). Hence, we have the expression "the iniquity of my sin" (Ps 32:5). Thus the meaning glides into that of "guilt," which might often take the place of "iniquity" as the translation of `awon (Ge 15:16; Ex 34:7; Jer 2:22, etc.). From "guilt" it again passes into the meaning of "punishment of guilt," just as Latin piaculum may denote both guilt and its punishment. The transition is all the easier in Hebrew because of the Hebrew sense of the intimate relation of sin and suffering, e.g. Ge 4:13, "My punishment is greater than I can bear"; which is obviously to be preferred to King James Version margin, the Revised Version, margin "Mine iniquity is greater than can be forgiven," for Cain is not so much expressing sorrow for his sin, as complaining of the severity of his punishment; compare 2Ki 7:9 (the Revised Version (British and American) "punishment," the Revised Version margin "iniquity"); Isa 5:18 (where for "iniquity" we might have "punishment of iniquity," as in Le 26:41,43, etc.); Isa 40:2 ("iniquity," the Revised Version margin "punishment"). The phrase "bear iniquity" is a standing expression for bearing its consequences, i.e. its penalty; generally of the sinner bearing the results of his own iniquity (Le 17:16; 20:17,19; Nu 14:34; Eze 44:10, etc.), but sometimes of one bearing the iniquity of another vicariously, and so taking it away (e.g. Eze 4:4 f; 18:19 f). Of special interest in the latter sense are the sufferings of the Servant of Yahweh, who shall "bear the iniquities" of the people (Isa 53:11; compare Isa 53:6).

Other words frequently translated "iniquity" are: 'awen, literally, "worthlessness," "vanity," hence, "naughtiness," "mischief" (47 times in the King James Version, especially in the phrase "workers of iniquity," Job 4:8; Ps 5:5; 6:8; Pr 10:29, etc.); `awel and `awlah, literally, "perverseness" (De 32:4; Job 6:29 the King James Version, etc.).

In the New Testament "iniquity" stands for anomia equals properly, "the condition of one without law," "lawlessness" (so translated in 1 Joh 3:4, elsewhere "iniquity," e.g. Mt 7:23), a word which frequently stood for `awon in the Septuagint; and adikia, literally, "unrighteousness" (e.g. Lu 13:27).

D. Miall Edwards

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Injustice, unrighteousness, wickedness, sin, sinfulness. 2. Sin, crime, misdeed, wicked act, offence.

Moby Thesaurus

abomination, atrocity, bad, breach, crime, crime against humanity, deadly sin, delinquency, dereliction, diablerie, disgrace, enormity, error, evil, failure, fault, felony, genocide, guilty act, heavy sin, illegality, improperness, impropriety, indiscretion, inequitableness, inequity, inexpiable sin, infamy, iniquitousness, injury, injustice, knavery, lapse, malefaction, malfeasance, malum, minor wrong, misdeed, misdemeanor, misfeasance, mortal sin, nonfeasance, obliquity, offense, omission, outrage, peccadillo, peccancy, reprobacy, scandal, shame, sin, sin of commission, sin of omission, sinful act, slip, tort, transgression, trespass, trip, undueness, unjustness, unlawfulness, unmeetness, unutterable sin, venial sin, villainy, wrong, wrongdoing, wrongfulness, wrongness