mea culpa

noun

mea cul·​pa ˌmā-ə-ˈku̇l-pə 

ˌmā-ä-,

-ˈku̇l-(ˌ)pä

: a formal acknowledgment of personal fault or error

The mayor's public mea culpa didn't satisfy his critics.

Did you know?

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

The mayor's public mea culpa didn't satisfy his critics.

Recent Examples on the Web

But on Bitcoin, even after his mea culpa, Rogoff is still wrong. —Christian Catalini, Forbes.com, 20 Aug. 2025

The bigger story from Altman’s dinner wasn’t his mea culpa. —Eva Roytburg, Fortune, 18 Aug. 2025

In response, OpenAI has issued a series of fixes and mea culpas. —Bloomberg, Mercury News, 15 Aug. 2025

Harrison was away for twice as long and, unlike Aaronson, did not indicate a passion to continue at Elland Road with an immediate mea culpa on day one of pre-season. —Beren Cross, New York Times, 14 Aug. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Latin, through my fault

First Known Use

1602, in the meaning defined above

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