Synonym Chooser

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

Some common synonyms of blamable are blameworthy, culpable, and guilty. While all these words mean "deserving reproach or punishment," blameworthy and blamable apply to any degree of reprehensibility.

conduct adjudged blameworthy
an accident for which no one is blamable

When could culpable be used to replace blamable?

While the synonyms culpable and blamable are close in meaning, culpable is weaker than guilty and is likely to connote malfeasance or errors of ignorance, omission, or negligence.

culpable neglect

When would guilty be a good substitute for blamable?

The words guilty and blamable are synonyms, but do differ in nuance. Specifically, 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

Recent Examples of Synonyms for blamable
Adjective
  • Joly was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit hostage taking and 16 counts of hostage taking of a U.S. national for ransom.
    Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald, 18 May 2025
  • Often, entrepreneurs can feel guilty about taking time for themselves, but Biggins and White say the data shows that the investment in time and energy pays off in terms of better performance.
    Trevor Clawson, Forbes.com, 18 May 2025
Adjective
  • 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
  • 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
Adjective
  • 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
Adjective
  • Of the $15 million that the jury awarded Depp, $5 million was in punitive damages aimed to punish Heard for especially reprehensible conduct.
    Winston Cho, HollywoodReporter, 19 Apr. 2025
  • Whereas Serena could easily have emerged as a one-note villain, from the beginning of her tenure on the series, Strahovski has imbued Serena with a soulfulness that often puts the audience uncomfortably on her side, despite her reprehensible actions.
    Scarlett Harris, IndieWire, 7 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • Youngest brother Dante is reckless and indebted to dangerous criminals.
    Clare Mulroy, USA Today, 15 May 2025
  • On Sunday, officers arrested the suspect in South San Francisco and booked him into San Mateo County jail on charges of hit-and-run causing injury and reckless evading.
    Jason Green, Mercury News, 14 May 2025
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.

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Cite this Entry

“Blamable.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/blamable. Accessed 25 May. 2025.

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