cul ‧ pa ‧ ble /ˈkʌlpəb ə l/ BrE AmE adjective
[ Date: 1200-1300 ; Language: Old French ; Origin: coupable , from Latin culpabilis , from culpare 'to blame' , from culpa 'guilt' ]
1 . formal deserving blame:
Both parties were held to be to some extent culpable.
2 . law a culpable action is one that is considered criminal
culpable homicide/negligence etc
He pleaded guilty to culpable homicide.
—culpably adverb
—culpability /ˌkʌlpəˈbɪləti, ˌkʌlpəˈbɪlɪti/ noun [uncountable]
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THESAURUS
▪ guilty if someone is guilty of a crime or doing something wrong, they did it, and they should be punished for it:
She was found guilty of murder.
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He was guilty of serious misconduct.
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The two guilty men were ordered to pay damages to their victims.
▪ responsible [not before noun] used when saying who should be blamed for something bad that has happened:
Police believe a local gang is responsible for the burglaries.
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As manager, he is ultimately responsible for the failure of the project.
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The other driver was responsible for the accident.
▪ be to blame if someone is to blame for a bad situation, they are responsible:
The government is partly to blame for the crisis.
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If anything goes wrong, it’s never him that is to blame.
▪ culpable /ˈkʌlpəb ə l/ formal responsible for something bad or illegal, so that you deserve to be blamed or punished:
The people who helped the terrorists are equally culpable for what happened on July 7th.
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He pleaded guilty to culpable homicide (=being guilty of causing someone’s death) .
▪ negligent /ˈneɡlɪdʒ ə nt/ [not usually before noun] responsible for something bad that has happened, because you did not take enough care, or you did not try to stop it from happening:
The court decided that the railway company was negligent.
▪ be in the wrong to be responsible for an accident, mistake etc – used when deciding which person, group etc should be blamed:
The other driver was clearly in the wrong.
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She always thinks it’s me who is in the wrong.
▪ incriminating used about things which seem to show that someone is guilty of a crime:
incriminating evidence
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incriminating documents
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He didn’t want to say anything incriminating.