culprit

noun cul·prit \ ˈkəl-prət , -ˌprit \

|Updated on: 16 Jun 2018

Examples: culprit in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

Definition of culprit

1 : one accused of or charged with a crime

The culprit pleaded "not guilty."

2 : one guilty of a crime or a fault

The culprit expressed remorse at his sentencing.

3 : the source or cause of a problem

Lack of exercise and poor diet are the main culprits in heart disease.

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Examples of culprit in a Sentence

The police eventually located the culprits.
the police caught the culprit a mere two blocks from the scene of the crime

Recent Examples of culprit from the Web

The Girls Trip actress appeared to indicate that the Beyhive was onto something with the hunch that actor Sanaa Lathan was the culprit behind Beyoncé’s face bite in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter .

— cady lang, Time, "Tiffany Haddish Says This Is Who Bit Beyoncé," 13 June 2018
And the culprits vary from governments to criminal gangs to terrorist groups and lone individuals.

— jens stoltenberg, WIRED, "How NATO Defends Against the Dark Side of the Web," 9 June 2018
The big sinkhole that opened up on Benson Boulevard in Midtown Anchorage in late May was traced to one main culprit: a rotting steel pipe that dates back to the 1980s, officials say.

— devin kelly, Anchorage Daily News, "Spenard sinkhole signals a looming crisis over Anchorage’s aging drainpipes," 7 June 2018
The culprits include surging U.S. shale output, fewer barrels from the Middle East and transport bottlenecks in North America.

— spencer jakab, WSJ, "Wacky Prices Pinch Oil Producers’ Profits," 31 May 2018
But second-hand imports are a major culprit, according to a paper in 2008 by Garth Frazer of the University of Toronto.

— The Economist, "Rwanda refuses to remove tariffs on imports of used clothing," 31 May 2018
Imagine if criminals conveniently left calling cards at crime scenes that helped describe the culprits.

— shari rudavsky, Indianapolis Star, "IUPUI prof develops 'biological witness' test to predict skin, hair & eye color from DNA," 29 May 2018
For starters, redness-reducing eye drops could be your surprising culprit.

— korin miller, SELF, "What Exactly Causes Red, Bloodshot Eyes?," 25 May 2018
If FODMAPs are the primary culprit, thousands of people may be on gluten-free diets with the support of their doctors and dietitians but without good reason.

— kelly servick, Science | AAAS, "What’s really behind ‘gluten sensitivity’?," 23 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'culprit.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

We would be culpable if we didn't clearly explain the origins behind culprit. Yes, it is related to culpable, which itself derives from Latin culpare, meaning "to blame," via Middle English and Anglo-French. But the etymology of culprit is not so straightforward. In Anglo-French, culpable meant "guilty," and this was abbreviated "cul." in legal briefs and texts. Culprit was formed by combining this abbreviation with prest, prit, meaning "ready"-that is, ready to prove an accusation. Literally, then, a culprit was one who was ready to be proven guilty. English then borrowed the word for one accused of a wrongdoing.