mea culpa
noun
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Mea culpa, which means "through my fault" in Latin, comes from a prayer of confession in the Catholic Church. Said by itself, it's an exclamation of apology or remorse that is used to mean "It was my fault" or "I apologize." Mea culpa is also a noun, however. A newspaper might issue a mea culpa for printing inaccurate information, or a politician might give a speech making mea culpas for past wrongdoings. Mea culpa is one of many English terms that derive from the Latin culpa, meaning "guilt." Some other examples are culpable ("meriting condemnation or blame especially as wrong or harmful"), culprit ("one guilty of a crime or a fault"), and exculpate ("to clear from alleged fault or guilt").
Examples of mea culpa in a Sentence
Austin Knoblauch, Los Angeles Times, 11 Sep. 2023
In a rare occurrence, the princess issued a mea culpa for the altered image, which had undergone 17 edits.
—Etan Vlessing, The Hollywood Reporter, 22 Mar. 2024
Later that year, Modi made a rare mea culpa and announced plans to roll back the reforms.
—Siladitya Ray, Forbes, 13 Feb. 2024
Unlike so many volumes written since 2016, this is not a tell-all about Donald Trump’s presidency or a mea culpa from a staffer from his administration.
—Julie Hinds, Detroit Free Press, 3 Mar. 2024
The Giving Pies, a fixture in San Jose’s Willow Glen district, has become a small-business David going up against a corporate Goliath that now appears to have shifted gears into full mea culpa mode after the tech titan’s order cancellation that left the local merchant in a financial squeeze.
—George Avalos, The Mercury News, 25 Feb. 2024
Bryant settled with his accuser in civil court and issued a public mea culpa.
—Jayson Buford, Rolling Stone, 13 Feb. 2024
Carlos Santana is offering a mea culpa after coming under fire for making bizarre mid-concert anti-trans comments.
—Lauren Huff, EW.com, 25 Aug. 2023
Finally, on Monday, Ward published a mea culpa on Medium and announced Carta was shutting down its secondary private shares trading business to restore trust.
—Hank Tucker, Forbes, 16 Feb. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'mea culpa.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Mea culpa.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mea%20culpa. Accessed 17 Apr. 2024.
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