Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Deserving of blame or censure as being wrong, evil, improper, or injurious. See Synonyms at blameworthy.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Deserving censure; blamable; blameworthy: said of persons or their conduct.
- Guilty.
- n. A culprit.
Wiktionary
- adj. meriting condemnation, censure or blame, especially as something wrong, harmful or injurious; blameworthy
GNU Webster's 1913
WordNet 3.0
- adj. deserving blame or censure as being wrong or evil or injurious
Etymologies
- From Middle English culpable, from Old French culpable, from Latin culpabilis ("blameworthy"), from culpare ("to blame, condemn"), from culpa ("fault, crime, mistake") (Wiktionary)
- Middle English coupable, from Old French, from Latin culpābilis, from culpāre, to blame, from culpa, fault. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Remember, there are also specific child abuse laws that many states have that go beyond intentional crimes that can make you criminally responsible for what they call culpable neglect.”
“She was reduced to the last degree of poverty; her friends held themselves aloof, disgusted at what they termed her culpable weakness; she and her children suffered from cold and hunger; and during her subsequent illness she and they must have starved and frozen but for the public charities, that would not let anyone in our midst perish from want of necessary food and fuel.”
“And so the story goes, of all the organizations and institutions that have engaged in culpable activities, one is singled out for punishment by the Federal Government.”
“To me the only place the Feds are culpable is in the authorization of funds to build up the levees.”
“During the reign of the late king, the ark had been left in culpable neglect.”
“If allowing sin to enter creation makes God "culpable" -- well, it can't be said He hasn't suffered for it ...”
“If allowing sin to enter creation makes God" culpable "-- well, it can't be said He hasn't suffered for it ...”
“Still, though, the head of the investigation said there was no evidence of deliberate distortion or what Lord Butler called culpable negligence.”
“Added to this culpable failure to take action long ago, I feel bound to say that there is an additional factor behind this tragic debacle, namely a culpable incompetence.”
“Thus, disease, accident, or unemployment might be due to immorality or intemperance in the more or less distant, past; and what is now classified as culpable inefficiency or shiftlessness might be ultimately traceable to prolonged unemployment.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘culpable’.
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1100
abound, technology, branch of knowled..., prognosticate, automaton, matron, an older married ..., realm, special field of ..., kingdom, annals, historical records and 981 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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important
shamanism, consol, sanguine, iffy, affinity, concatenation, honed, innumberable, aiden, inexorable, vet, suss and 176 more...
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hunting
crudely, unequivocal, obsolete, obscure, overtly, misdeed, shack, inherent, outcry, hefty, composed, poised and 318 more...
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Dominant/Submissive
single-minded, self-seeking, vain, territorial, stubborn, self-possessed, unwary, self-important, rigid, relentless, resolute, purposeful and 189 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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Philosophic , etymology
every major discipline has uniquely developed esoteric nomenclature to facilitate interdisciplinary dissemination
quale , qualia, elegy, tacet, lexicon, annunciate, caste, eros, contrive, purlicue, irony, venacular, dilapidate and 567 more...
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List 2(starting at 260)
mammoth, overt, valor, aspire, relegate, bias, incisive, scurry, precipitate, singular, inveigh, repulse and 48 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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to memorize
words i need to memorize
aberrant, abscond, advocate, aggrandize, amalgamate, ambiguous, ambrosial, anomalous, antediluvian, antipathy, arbitrate, assuage and 163 more...
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SAT words
abase, abate, abet, abject, abjure, abrogate, abscond, abstruse, accolade, accommodating, accost, accretion and 202 more...
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Hit Parade GRE
Princeton Review words
abscond, aberrant, alacrity, anomaly, approbation, arduous, assuage, audacious, austere, axiomatic, canonical, capricious and 287 more...
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1100 words you need to know
GRE words
voracious, indiscriminate, eminent, steeped, replete, abound, technology, prognosticate, automaton, matron, paradox, realm and 288 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for culpable.
blafferty The word sounds like it's okay to pile things on top of him/her/it, and it also has sort of a hangdog, Eeyore sort of feel to it. Jun 9, 2009