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
Derived Forms
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.
"Culpability obviously essentially rests with those who committed the attacks, but certainly there's a level of culpability by the Belgian state that I feel needs to be addressed," says Charlotte.
From BBC • Dec. 4, 2022
"We, the families, don't feel guilty about what happened; it's the authorities who let loved ones down. Culpability lies at the very top."
From BBC • Jun. 6, 2022
Culpability rests not only with direct perpetrators but also those who are responsible for or acquiesce to it, they added.
From Reuters • Feb. 4, 2019
Geoff Cameron 6/10: Culpability on two Portugal goals had seen Cameron dropped by Klinsmann for the final group game.
From The Guardian • Jul. 1, 2014
Culpability, like loss, takes a while to absorb.
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
