Synonym Chooser

How is the word culpable different from other adjectives like it?

Some common synonyms of culpable are blamable, blameworthy, and guilty. While all these words mean "deserving reproach or punishment," culpable is weaker than guilty and is likely to connote malfeasance or errors of ignorance, omission, or negligence.

culpable neglect

How are the words blameworthy and blamable related as synonyms of culpable?

Both blameworthy and blamable apply to any degree of reprehensibility.

conduct adjudged blameworthy
an accident for which no one is blamable

When could guilty be used to replace culpable?

While in some cases nearly identical to culpable, guilty implies responsibility for or consciousness of crime, sin, or, at the least, grave error or misdoing.

guilty of a breach of etiquette

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of culpable Director of football Jon Rudkin is the figure many protesters see as the most culpable for Leicester’s decline. Rob Tanner, New York Times, 21 Apr. 2025 But in Friday’s season finale, Coop is able to not only acquit himself of murder and find the real culpable party, but is also given a chance to rejoin the professional ranks that had previously turned their backs on him. Max Gao, HollywoodReporter, 30 May 2025 The Framers understood the danger of a despotic regime and regarded the criminal jury trial as a key procedural safeguard to help ensure that only those acts and individuals society deemed truly culpable result in criminal punishment. Mike Fox, Chicago Tribune, 14 May 2025 His legal team presented arguments that the more culpable perpetrator received a lesser sentence and that a recent autism diagnosis were mitigating factors worthy of a clemency recommendation. James Powel, USA Today, 8 May 2025 See All Example Sentences for culpable
Recent Examples of Synonyms for culpable
Adjective
  • What To Know Shannon McShane was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to influencing a public servant, perjury, and retaliation against a witness or victim.
    Jenna Sundel, MSNBC Newsweek, 24 June 2025
  • If found guilty, Amazon could be fined up to one percent of its annual UK turnover.
    Preston Fore, Fortune, 24 June 2025
Adjective
  • His Stoic Challenge framework invites you to see a setback not as something terrible, blameworthy or unfair but instead as a test of your ingenuity and resilience.
    Hanna Hart, Forbes.com, 29 May 2025
  • But Miss Manners acknowledges that there is also the less blameworthy impulse to offer comfort — not just sympathy — when there is no real comfort to be offered.
    Judith Martin, The Mercury News, 11 Feb. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Culpable.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/culpable. Accessed 1 Jul. 2025.

More from Merriam-Webster on culpable

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