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
Gregg EasterbrookExamples 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
Khan, who led the agency in bringing the lawsuit against Amazon, suggested that the FTC had absolved the company of its full culpability by agreeing to settle.
—Miranda Jeyaretnam, Time, 26 Sep. 2025
But unlike the billions of other web-using inhabitants of planet Earth, the 72-year-old Canter feels an ever-so-slight twinge of culpability for all that digital junk that rockets across the internet each day.
—Johnny Dodd, PEOPLE, 6 Sep. 2025
Naming an interstate war based on the state in which the war is fought – while omitting the name of outside instigators – implies the culpability of that state.
—Esther Brito Ruiz, The Conversation, 5 Sep. 2025
Wearing a Loro Piana sweater on a yacht that’s strategically anchored in international waters so as to avoid any criminal financial culpability.
—Madeline Goetz, New Yorker, 4 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for culpability
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Miranda Jeyaretnam, Time, 26 Sep. 2025
But unlike the billions of other web-using inhabitants of planet Earth, the 72-year-old Canter feels an ever-so-slight twinge of culpability for all that digital junk that rockets across the internet each day.
—Johnny Dodd, PEOPLE, 6 Sep. 2025
Naming an interstate war based on the state in which the war is fought – while omitting the name of outside instigators – implies the culpability of that state.
—Esther Brito Ruiz, The Conversation, 5 Sep. 2025
Wearing a Loro Piana sweater on a yacht that’s strategically anchored in international waters so as to avoid any criminal financial culpability.
—Madeline Goetz, New Yorker, 4 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for culpability
Cite this Entry
“Culpability.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culpability. Accessed 7 Oct. 2025.
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