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# culpable

adjective (culpable; more culpable)

«culpable» in the English dictionary: everyday — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## Everyday

(formal, law) Deserving blame for something wrong or bad: «He was culpable for the accident». [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/culpable/#m1)

### In the lessons

In law and ethics lessons, being culpable means being responsible for harm and deserving blame; courts decide how culpable someone is, and a person who did not mean harm may be less culpable. In stories and history, characters argue about who is culpable. Phrases: «held culpable», «morally culpable», «culpable negligence», «culpable homicide» (Scotland, law: killing without meaning to murder).

### Examples

- The driver was found culpable for the crash. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/culpable/#x1)
- Everyone who knew about the bullying and did nothing felt a little culpable. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/culpable/#x2)
- Is a child as culpable as an adult for breaking a rule? [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/culpable/#x3)
- The judge said the company was culpable for the pollution. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/culpable/#x4)
- In ethics we discussed when someone is morally culpable. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/culpable/#x5)
- She was not culpable, because she did not know the bridge was unsafe. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/culpable/#x6)

### Note

Formal; in speech say «to blame» or «guilty». Said «KUL-puh-bul». The noun is «culpability». It comes from Latin «culpa», fault, as in «mea culpa» (my fault). The opposite is «blameless» or «innocent».

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «culpable» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/culpable/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«culpable» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/culpable.html) on Mova free.