venality

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

More broadly the play is a tart vivisection of human pettiness and venality, as one by one the characters’ prejudices, peccadilloes and blinkered views are exposed.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 23, 2026

You perceive Hale’s true colors immediately through those associations, just as you can see Ernest’s venality through DiCaprio’s immediately recognizable brand of boyish corruptibility.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 19, 2023

Landlords are opposed to this and other measures and not out of venality.

From Seattle Times • Mar. 3, 2023

He was familiar with the business’s unpredictability, not to mention its venality.

From New York Times • Nov. 19, 2020

The system was, indeed, notoriously faulty, and did much to encourage that venality in the clerical courts which moved Chaucer’s laughter and the indignation of his contemporaries.

From Chaucer and His England by Coulton, G. G.