Amoral - immoral

Both amoral and immoral are negatives of the useful adjective moral, but they are different in their meanings and should be treated very separately, and with great care. If you are studying Philosophy, particularly Moral Philosophy, or Theology and other such subjects, AWE's definitions are not good enough. They are intended for students of other disciplines who only have a tangential need to know about these words.)

• Amoral simply means 'without 'without [an idea of] morals', 'not caring whether a particular action is moral or not', or 'treating morals as irrelevant'. Animals (other than humans) are characterized by most people as entirely amoral: cats are not being 'bad' when they kill birds or play with mice: that is their nature, and they have no concept of 'good' (moral) or not. Cats are amoral.
• Immoral, on the other hand, means '[behaving in a way that is] contrary to what is accepted as good (moral)', 'morally wrong', '[knowingly] bad'. People who behave immorally know that their behaviour is against standards of morality, whether their own or those of the group to which they belong. (Do not make the typing mistake of confusing immoral with 'immortal' - 'undying', 'who will live for ever', 'immune from death'.