degeneracy in WordNet English dictionary

1. moral perversion; impairment of virtue and moral principles
   "the luxury and corruption among the upper classes"; "moral degeneracy followed intellectual degeneration"; "its brothels, its opium parlors, its depravity"; "Rome had fallen into moral putrefaction"
   corruption  degeneracy  depravation  depravity  putrefaction 
   
2. the state of being degenerate in mental or moral qualities
   degeneracy  degeneration  decadence  decadency