Bribery is the act of giving someone money, gifts, or a favour so that they will do something dishonest — often an official who should be fair. Courts, newspapers, and teachers use it as a serious, formal word: “charged with bribery,” “bribery is a crime.” Though actually English bribery often covers the whole dirty deal, while Chinese splits it more cleanly: giving is 行賄 and taking is 受賄. In careful talk, corruption is the wider mess; bribery is this one way of doing it. You would not use bribery for a small kind present with no secret ask behind it. The word names the practice, not the cash itself — the cash is a bribe.