mea culpa
noun
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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
Tim Graham, The Athletic, 7 Jan. 2025
But this record can also be seen as an album-length mea culpa to those who haven’t let go of the Tyler who ate the roach.
—Hazlitt, 11 Dec. 2024
But taking the write down is usually an ego blow and a public mea culpa that the acquisition was perhaps not the greatest use of capital.
—Shivaram Rajgopal, Forbes, 26 Nov. 2024
More anecdotally, longtime bearish economist David Rosenberg of Rosenberg Research last week published a sort of mea culpa and a turn toward giving an expensive market the benefit of the doubt.
—Michael Santoli, CNBC, 7 Dec. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Mea culpa.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mea%20culpa. Accessed 18 Jan. 2025.
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