Usage patterns 背はい 徳とく 感かん を 覚おぼ える to feel a sense of guilt or moral transgression
He felt a sense of moral guilt over the act.
背はい 徳とく 的てき な 〈 事こと 〉 an immoral, morally transgressive (act, relationship, etc.)
Their relationship was an immoral one.
背はい 徳とく の 味あじ the taste of a guilty pleasure (something indulgent yet forbidden)
Ramen eaten late at night tastes like a guilty pleasure.
Kanji 徳 benevolence, virtue, goodness Related words 不道徳 is the common, everyday word for being immoral or unethical, while 背徳 carries a heavier, literary sense of betraying one's own conscience.
堕落 emphasizes a personal fall into depravity or decline, while 背徳 focuses on the act of violating moral principles itself.
悪徳 describes vice or corrupt conduct as a trait or practice, whereas 背徳 emphasizes the act of betraying moral standards.
背徳 implies a betrayal of moral standards (often with a sense of transgression), while 不徳 simply denotes a lack of virtue without that connotation of betrayal.
Written forms 背はい 徳とく Usage 95%
悖はい 徳とく Usage 5%
rarely-used kanji form
Rarely used kanji form; 悖 is not a jōyō kanji.
Etymology From Middle Chinese 背德 (puʌiH tək̚), literally 'turn one's back on virtue'. The kanji 背 means 'back' or 'to go against', and 徳 means 'virtue' or 'morality'.
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