culpability
Americannoun
Usage
What does culpability mean? Culpability is the quality of being culpable—deserving blame for a crime or wrongdoing. When someone is described as culpable for something, it means it’s their fault or that they are guilty of it. Culpability is the guilt or blame that a person deserves. The words culpable and culpability are typically used in serious legal contexts involving crimes. Example: It’s the job of a jury to assign or reject culpability for a crime.
Other Word Forms
- nonculpability noun
Etymology
Origin of culpability
Explanation
Culpability is a state of guilt or responsibility. A lot of lawsuits are about who has culpability for something that went wrong. Culpability is a fancy-sounding word, but it's a simple concept: guilt. You have culpability if you're responsible for something, usually something bad. If you left the door open and your house was robbed, you have some culpability (not as much as the robber, though). If a store owner doesn't salt the ice on the sidewalk and you slip, he has some culpability if you get injured. Figuring out culpability is about figuring out who's to blame.
Vocabulary lists containing culpability
Just Mercy
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myPerspectives 9.2
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The Woman Warrior
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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.
Instead, the book offers a bitingly funny and occasionally heartbreaking twist on the classic Instagram-versus-reality story, and a space to address our own culpability within the safe confines of fiction.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 7, 2026
Two jurors interviewed after the verdict said the eight days of deliberation were filled with questions about culpability and what signal they wanted their decisions to send to Meta and YouTube.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 26, 2026
But the judge rejected that, finding the union's culpability was high and that it had "persuaded themselves of their own spurious argument".
From BBC • Mar. 17, 2026
Felony murder allows for an incredibly broad net of culpability, yet it is law in most states.
From Slate • Mar. 6, 2026
“That’s some Bill Laimbeer style of play right there. Rough, tough, and no sense of culpability for his actions, Reggie.”
From "Here to Stay" by Sara Farizan
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.
