culpable
Americanadjective
adjective
Usage
What does culpable mean? Culpable means 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.Culpable is typically used in serious legal contexts involving crimes.The noun culpability refers to the guilt or blame that is deserved for some crime or wrongdoing.Example: The CEO should be held criminally culpable for the negligence that resulted in the deaths of several employees.
Other Word Forms
- culpability noun
- culpableness noun
- culpably adverb
- nonculpable adjective
- nonculpableness noun
- nonculpably adverb
- unculpable adjective
Etymology
Origin of culpable
1275–1325; Middle English < Latin culpābilis, equivalent to culpā ( re ) to hold liable (derivative of culpa blame) + -bilis -ble; replacing Middle English coupable < Middle French < Latin as above
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.
He said he would have apologised were he "in any way complicit or culpable" but stressed that was never the case.
From BBC
The singer “further manipulated Plaintiff, blaming him for the incident and convincing him that he was the sole culpable party,” confusing Corletto, the lawsuit said.
From Los Angeles Times
All memory of Nancy's reign - if you want to call it that - will be shovelled under a carpet now by anybody and everybody culpable in the process of appointing him.
From BBC
With his head dipped and voice low, Soto-Parada pleaded “culpable” through a Spanish interpreter as he forfeited his right to a trial.
From Los Angeles Times
You have limited time before your inaction renders you forever culpable.
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.
