Dictionary

kompromat en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (General-American) audio

Etymology

Borrowed from Russian компрома́т (kompromát), short for компромети́рующий материа́л (komprometírujuščij materiál, “compromising material”). Soviet security service slang from the Stalin era.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) Compromising material, blackmail material, (real or fabricated) evidence that a person does not want revealed, dirt.
   • Many observers have commented that, with so many Russian newspapers and TV channels now controlled by oligarchs or powerful organisations, kompromat is now a regular feature in the supposedly independent press.
   • If your car has a bunch of data that's useful to stalkers, it's only because the car manufacturers have turned cars into rolling surveillance platforms that spy on their drivers constantly […] If Big Car is worried that used vehicles are full of nonconsensually collected kompromat, maybe they could, you know, just stop collecting all that data? 2020 September 3, Cory Doctorow, “Big Car says Right to Repair will MURDER YOU”, in Pluralistic:
   • This could mean that the most powerful men involved in the scandal are good at intimidating accusers. But it could also mean Epstein really was just following his own perversions, not catering to (or gathering kompromat on) his wealthy friends. 2025 September 9, Ross Douthat, “Can Trump Deflate the Epstein Birthday-Book Scandal?”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:

Forms

Translations (18)

de Kompromat (dirt, compromising material) · sv kompromat (dirt, compromising material) · bg компрома́т (dirt, compromising material) · fr kompromat (dirt, compromising material) · fi vahingoittava materiaali (dirt, compromising material) · ru компрома́т (dirt, compromising material) · pl kompromat (dirt, compromising material) · nl kompromat (dirt, compromising material) · de kompromittierendes Material (dirt, compromising material) · hu kompromittáló anyag (dirt, compromising material) · ko 콤프로마트 (dirt, compromising material) · be кампрама́т (dirt, compromising material) · fi kompromaatti (dirt, compromising material) · cmn 黑料 (dirt, compromising material) · pl haki (dirt, compromising material) · pl hak (dirt, compromising material) · uk компрома́т (dirt, compromising material) · cmn 黑材料 (dirt, compromising material)