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
Jake Kanter, Deadline, 12 Sep. 2024
In many ways, most of the updates in Black Ops 6 feel like a series of mea culpas to regular players who have seen many of their favorite features get lost in the perpetual sequelization of the franchise.
—Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 11 Sep. 2024
So finally, the Kelly family took down all of the videos related to the shoe hack—and replaced them with their mea culpa.
—Tanay Howard, Parents, 12 Aug. 2024
And because any mea culpa would risk undermining the party’s legitimacy and its right to rule unilaterally, nothing of the sort is likely to occur so long as the CCP remains in power.
—Orville Schell, Foreign Affairs, 12 Dec. 2017
See all Example Sentences for mea culpa 
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 20 Sep. 2024.
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