Synonyms

mea culpa

American

[may-uh kuhl-puh, mee-uh, me-ah kool-pah] / ˈmeɪ ə ˈkʌl pə, ˈmi ə, ˈmɛ ɑ ˈkʊl pɑ /

interjection

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

noun

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

mea culpa British

/ ˈmeɪɑː ˈkʊlpɑː /

an acknowledgment of guilt

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

mea culpa Cultural

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.”

Usage

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.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

mea culpas

plural

Etymology

Origin of mea culpa

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

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.

See Examples For:

mea culpa

The French UN mission apologized in September for the critique, a mea culpa that was well-received by Washington and cleared the way for Lechevallier's appointment.

From Barron's ● Oct. 22, 2026

There was no accountability, no apology, no mea culpa.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 20, 2026

“The first thing I wanted to do was just to be honest with everybody and to say, ‘Look, mea culpa, we screwed up,’” Dalporto said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026