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.
Damian Williams said Shah was the most culpable of the many defendants accused of participating in a nationwide fraud scheme.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 1, 2026
If found culpable, he could be suspended from the practice of law or disbarred in D.C.
From Slate • Mar. 11, 2026
But much more money would be needed for real remediation, and other companies are likely to be culpable too, experts said.
From Barron's • Feb. 19, 2026
He has previously said he was not complicit or culpable in Epstein's crimes and has apologised to the women and girls who suffered.
From BBC • Feb. 4, 2026
At Sophie Mol’s funeral and in the days before Estha was Returned, they saw her swollen eyes, and with the self-centeredness of children, held themselves wholly culpable for her grief.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
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.
