guilty
Americanadjective
-
guiltier,
comparative
-
guiltiest
superlative
-
having committed an offense, crime, violation, or wrong, especially against moral or penal law; justly subject to a certain accusation or penalty; culpable.
The jury found her guilty of murder.
-
characterized by, connected with, or involving guilt.
guilty intent.
-
having or showing a sense of guilt, whether real or imagined.
a guilty conscience.
adjective
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responsible for an offence or misdeed
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law having committed an offence or adjudged to have done so
the accused was found guilty
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law (of a person charged with an offence) to admit responsibility; confess
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of, showing, or characterized by guilt
a guilty smile
guilty pleasures
Usage
What does guilty mean? If you’re guilty, it means you were responsible for doing something wrong, especially a crime. If you’re found guilty, it means a jury has officially decided that you committed a crime. If you feel guilty, it means you feel bad about something you shouldn’t have done or should have done but didn’t. In a legal context, guilty is the opposite of innocent (not guilty). It is often used in an official sense, but not always. Example: Once when I was a kid I shoplifted a stick of gum from the store and felt so guilty about it that I was crying by the time I got home.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of guilty
First recorded before 1000; Middle English; Old English gyltig; equivalent to guilt + -y 1
Compare meaning
How does guilty compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Someone guilty has done something wrong or illegal. And when you do something wrong, you feel guilty — bad or sorry — about it. The police are responsible for finding out who’s guilty of a crime so they can be arrested, convicted, and punished. But you can also be guilty of smaller, more legal things, like cheating on a test, breaking the rules of a game, or thinking awful things. If you’ve done it, then you’re guilty of it: so if someone asks if you have a crush on your swim instructor, you can say “guilty!”
Vocabulary lists containing guilty
In the Mood? 100 Words to Describe Emotions
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Feeling Sorry?
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Hooked on a Feeling, List 2
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Through May, prosecutors had charged fewer than four dozen people with crimes related to noncitizen voting, ProPublica’s analysis of DOJ data and federal court filings shows, getting convictions or guilty pleas in 14 cases.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
Friedman Agnifilo told the judge: "Mr Mangione is prepared to plead guilty at this time."
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
“Today’s guilty plea makes clear that harming or harassing our marine wildlife has serious consequences.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
Chauvin pleaded guilty to federal civil-rights charges and was convicted of murder in state court.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
So I take one, and I eat it slowly, trying not to feel too guilty.
From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy
This would make any nurse look guiltier with each job change.
From Science Magazine ● Jan. 18, 2023
She wrote that his “fictionalized version of me is just the tabloid conspiracy guiltier version of me.”
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 30, 2021
Sure, he may succeed in keeping the report out of your hands, but he’ll only manage to appear even guiltier than he already looks.
From Salon ● Apr. 3, 2019
Given that criticising someone for feeling guilty is only going to make them feel guiltier, guilt has, as we’ve seen, proved a tricky opponent – one that its various modern combatants have yet to defeat.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 3, 2017
Chris was smiling at him in pure sweetness, which made Theo feel even guiltier about his resentment.
From "The Westing Game" by Ellen Raskin
So he'll continue to act like the guiltiest man alive.
From Salon ● Jan. 18, 2024
That’s a shame, because the airline’s 11 outside directors are arguably the guiltiest of the guilty parties in the company’s recent fiasco, the most deserving of obloquy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 3, 2023
A John Mitchell, the campaign director, who Mason always thought looked the guiltiest.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 19, 2018
Both Courtney and Alex would be fully within their rights to plead temporary insanity—the guiltiest party here is the wedding-industrial complex.
From Slate ● Jul. 28, 2018
Josie couldn’t even tell which specific scene he was talking about, or which awful thing one of them had done to the other she felt maddest or guiltiest about.
From "The School for Whatnots" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
