guilty
Americanadjective
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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.
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characterized by, connected with, or involving guilt.
guilty intent.
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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
- guiltily adverb
- guiltiness noun
- overguilty adjective
- quasi-guiltily adverb
- quasi-guilty adjective
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:
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.
Hill has subsequently resigned from office and pleaded guilty to several crimes, including lying under oath about sharing sealed evidence with reporters.
She agreed to plead guilty to one count of each.
From Los Angeles Times
My sister is forgetting that people are innocent until proven guilty.
From Literature
Podedworna, 40, of Boyer Street in Derby, who was a "skilled butcher", had denied murder but was found guilty by a jury on Tuesday.
From BBC
Bottom line: If your mother authorized the sale of her home and it was understood that the proceeds belonged to her, your sister could be found guilty of misappropriation.
From MarketWatch
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.
