mea culpa

[mey-uh kuhl-puh, mee-uh, me-ah kool-pah]

interjection

1. my fault! (used as an acknowledgment of one's responsibility).

noun

plural

mea culpas 

1. an acknowledgment of one's responsibility for a fault or error.

mea culpa

/ ˈmeɪɑː ˈkʊlpɑː /

1. an acknowledgment of guilt

mea culpa

1. An expression from Catholic ritual that assigns blame to oneself: “I gave you the wrong directions to my house — mea culpa.” From Latin, meaning “my fault” or “my blame.”

Word History and Origins

Origin of mea culpa¹

From Latin: literally “through my fault”; mea culpa def. 1 was first recorded in 1200–50, and mea culpa def. 2 in 1815–20; culpa ( def. )

Word History and Origins

Origin of mea culpa¹

literally: my fault

Example Sentences

A senior Tory told me after the election defeat the party had to "go everywhere and do a mea culpa, to listen and take a kicking".

From BBC

I don’t want to wait until Jake Tapper writes a post-mortem book about Trump and then goes on another mea culpa tour to publicize it.

From Salon

In a mea culpa statement to the court, Hancock explained that the errors might have crept into his declaration when he cut-and-pasted a note to himself.

From Los Angeles Times

But his mea culpa did little to appease the public.

From BBC

The murderous mea culpa was shared in a trailer for the upcoming Peacock docuseries "Making Manson."

From Salon

Related Words

• my bad www.thesaurus.com
• my fault www.thesaurus.com

When To Use

What does mea culpa mean?

Mea culpa is the Latin way of saying my bad. It literally means “through my (own) fault.”Mea culpa can be used as an interjection (much like my fault or my bad) or as a noun referring to an apology, as in The senator offered a mea culpa during the press conference.Example: Dave usually has a hard time admitting he’s wrong, so his mea culpa means a lot.