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 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 After the war, in 1945, around three million Germans, seen as culpable for the war and Nazi crimes, fled or were deported from the area. Sara Cincurova, New York Times, 3 May 2025 Prosecutors have launched an investigation into the crash regarding possible charges of manslaughter and culpable disaster. Nicholas Creel, MSNBC Newsweek, 18 Apr. 2025 See All Example Sentences for culpable
Recent Examples of Synonyms for culpable
Adjective
  • Weinstein pleaded not guilty to all charges in his retrial; both Haley and Mann testified against him again.
    Michaela Zee, Variety, 12 June 2025
  • Related article Catch up on the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial so far Combs has denied all wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
    Elizabeth Wagmeister, CNN Money, 12 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 16 Jun. 2025.

More from Merriam-Webster on culpable

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