Wrongdoing is behavior that breaks rules, laws, or moral standards. When someone commits a wrongdoing, they've done something they knew was wrong, like stealing supplies from a classroom, lying to get someone else in trouble, or breaking a promise they made.

The word covers everything from minor misbehavior to serious crimes. A student who copies homework commits a wrongdoing. A company executive who lies to investors commits a more serious wrongdoing. A politician who takes bribes is guilty of wrongdoing. The word doesn't specify exactly what was done wrong; it just indicates that something inappropriate or harmful happened.

You'll often hear wrongdoing in formal contexts, like news reports or official investigations. “The committee investigated allegations of wrongdoing” means they're looking into whether someone broke rules or laws.

Notice that wrongdoing implies intention or carelessness, not honest mistakes. If you accidentally knock over someone's science project, that's not wrongdoing. But if you knock it over on purpose out of jealousy, or because you were goofing around when you should've been careful, that would be wrongdoing.