culpability

noun

cul·​pa·​bil·​i·​ty ˌkəl-pə-ˈbi-lə-tē 

: responsibility for wrongdoing or failure : the quality or state of being culpable

moral/legal/criminal culpability

He refuses to acknowledge his own culpability.

Culpability for our failure to reduce petroleum imports falls across the political spectrum.

—Gregg Easterbrook

Synonyms of culpability

• blame
• guilt

Examples of culpability in a Sentence

cannot find culpability where there is neither knowledge that a crime has been committed nor evidence of intent to commit a crime

Recent Examples on the Web

Implying that the chatbot and image generation program itself is accountable allows people to hide from their own culpability in the bot’s shadow. —James Folta, Literary Hub, 8 Jan. 2026

When Congress was writing the drug laws in the 1980s and ‘90s, it was thought that higher purity in meth suggested greater culpability. —Kevin Krause, Dallas Morning News, 6 Jan. 2026

Roughly 1,000 people had accepted culpability and pleaded guilty. —Jamie Thompson, The Atlantic, 6 Jan. 2026

In his complaint, Hernandez claimed Ziering knowingly lied to law enforcement to avoid his own culpability, resulting in his wrongful arrest and incarceration. —Lauryn Overhultz, FOXNews.com, 2 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1652, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for culpability

• affability
• audibility
• bistability
• capability
• changeability
• contractility
• credibility
• disability
• disutility
• durability
• fallibility
• feasibility