blame
/bleɪm/
blame noun: censure.
Noun
blame (uncountable)
- Censure.
- Blame came from all directions.
- Synonyms:
- dispraise, disapprobation, disapproval, attainder, attainture, attaintment, censure, condemnation, condemning, damnation
- Culpability for something negative or undesirable.
- The blame for starting the fire lies with the arsonist.
- Responsibility for something meriting censure.
- They accepted the blame, but it was an accident.
- A source control feature that can show which user was responsible for a particular portion of the source code.
Verb
blame (third-person singular simple present blames, present participle blaming, simple past and past participle blamed)
- To assert or consider that someone is the cause of something negative; to place blame; to attribute responsibility (for something negative or for doing something negative).
- The student driver was blamed for the accident.
- After what happened at the wedding, I wouldn't blame you if you never spoke to them again.
- Synonyms:
- hold to account, hold someone responsible, hold someone accountable
- To assert the cause of some bad event.
- We blamed the accident on the student driver.
- Have to catch an early train, got to be to work by nine
And if I had an airplane, I still couldn't make it on time
'Cause it takes me so long just to figure out what I'm gonna wear
Blame it on the train, but the boss is already there1985 December 23, Prince, “Manic Monday”, in Different Light, performed by The Bangles
- To censure (someone or something); to criticize.
- though my loue be not so lewdly bent, / As those ye blame, yet may it nought appease / My raging smart [...].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
- I covered the serious programmes too, and indeed, right from the start, I spent more time praising than blaming.2006, Clive James, North Face of Soho, Picador, published 2007, page 106
- Synonyms:
- reproach, shend, take to task, upbraid, fault, find fault, admonish, animadvert, bash, bawl out
- To bring into disrepute.
- For knighthoods loue, do not so foule a deed, / Ne blame your honour with so shamefull vaunt / Of vile reuenge.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
Adjective
blame (not comparable)
- euphemism of damn (intensifier)
- "He yarns good," said Tom Platt. "T'other night he told us abaout a kid of his own size steerin' a cunnin' little rig an' four ponies up an' down Toledo, Ohio, I think 'twas, an' givin' suppers to a crowd o' sim'lar kids. Cur'us kind o' fairy-tale, but blame interestin'. He knows scores of 'em."1897, Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous
- “What do you want with one of those blame things?” / I asked him well beforehand. “Don’t you get one!”1923 October, Robert Frost, “[Notes.] The Star-splitter.”, in New Hampshire […], New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →OCLC, page 27
blame meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
blame in Hindi
- blame
- दोष doṣ
blame in Tamil
- பழி சுமத்து, குறை கூறு, குற்றச்சாட்டு, குற்றப்பொறுப்பு, குற்றம், குறை
blame in Marathi
- blame
- दोष doṣ
blame in Urdu
- state of having caused a bad event
- دوش doś
More languagesFewer languages
- blame in Bengali
- দোষ দেওয়া dōś deōẇa, এলজাম দেওয়া eljam deōẇa
- blame in Telugu
- నిందించు nindiñcu, అగడు agaḍu, గర్హించు garhiñcu
- blame in Malayalam
- അക്ഷേപം akṣēpaṁ, പഴി paḻi, ആക്ഷേപം ākṣēpaṁ, പഴിക്കുക paḻikkuka
- blame in Kannada
- ಪಳಿನುಡಿ, ಪಳಿವು, ಏಳಿದ, ಎಳ್ಳಿದು
- blame in Punjabi
- ਇਲਜ਼ਾਮ ilzām
- blame in Gujarati
- દોષ આપવો, દોષ આપવા માટે
- blame in Odia
- ଧିକାର dhikāra, କୁ ku
- blame in Sanskrit
- निन्दा nindā́, पीयति pī́yati, निन्दति níndati, निन्द् nind
- blame in Nepali
- दोष, दोष दिने
- blame in Pashto
- غندل
- blame in Arabic
- لَوْم lawm, مَلَامَة malāma, لَامَ lāma
- blame in Indonesian
- menuduh, menyalahi
- blame in Persian
- سرزنش کردن
- blame in Thai
- โทษ tôot
- blame in Vietnamese
- lỗi
Examples of blame in a sentence
- These peculiarities of Dorothea's character caused Mr Brooke to be all the more blamed in neighbouring families for not securing some middle-aged lady as guide and companion to his nieces.1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter I, in Middlemarch […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons...
- The critics all blamed it for a lack of concentration.1919, Saki, ‘The Oversight’, The Toys of Peace:
Synonyms of blame
- dispraise
- disapprobation
- disapproval
- censure
- condemnation
- condemning
- damnation
- improbation
- reprehension
- admonishment
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- brickbatting
- castigation
- onus
- chastisement
- criticism
- critique
- panning
- vituperation
- hold to account
- hold someone responsible
- hold someone accountable
- reproach
- shend
- take to task
- upbraid
- fault
- find fault
- admonish
- animadvert
- bash
- bawl out
- tilt
- cannonade
- slash
- lash
- scorch
- blast
- berate
- castigate
- charge
Antonyms
Forms of blame
| third-person singular present | blames |
|---|---|
| present participle | blaming |
| past participle | blamed |
| past | blamed |
| second-person singular present (archaic) | blamest |
| second-person singular past (archaic) | blamedst |
| third-person singular present (archaic) | blameth |
Origin of blame
From Middle English blame, borrowed from Old French blame, blasme, produced from the verb blasmer, which in turn is derived from Late Latin blastēmāre, variant of blasphēmāre, from Ancient Greek βλασφημέω (blasphēméō). Doublet of blaspheme. Displaced native Old English tǣling (“blame”) and tǣlan (“to blame”).
From Middle English blamen, borrowed from Old French blasmer, from Late Latin blasphēmāre (“to reproach, to revile”), from Ancient Greek βλασφημέω (blasphēméō). Compare blaspheme, a doublet. Overtook common use from the native wite (“to blame, accuse, reproach, suspect”) (from Middle English wīten, from Old English wītan).
Words formed from blame
Phrases with blame
Words that rhyme with blame
37 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- reclaim
- same
- declaim
- disclaim
- squame
- aflame
- came
- defame
- fame
- rame
- ashame
- became
- crame
- exclaim
- mechanical game
- misname
- overcame
- proclaim
- second name
- BAME
- by name
- cyberfame
- deadname
- enflame
- file names
- good game
- hame
- herostratic fame
- maim
- Markush claim
- reclame
- rename
- run game
- sejm
- succame
- two can play this game
- video game
Questions about blame
- What does blame mean?
- Blame means censure.
- What is blame in Hindi?
- Blame in Hindi is दोष (doṣ). See Blame meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use blame in a sentence?
- These peculiarities of Dorothea's character caused Mr Brooke to be all the more blamed in neighbouring families for not securing some middle-aged lady as guide and companion to his nieces.
- What part of speech is blame?
- Blame can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce blame?
- Blame is pronounced /bleɪm/.
Words near blame in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: blame (page history and authors); दोष (Hindi) (page history and authors); blame (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); दोष (Marathi) (page history and authors); అగడు (Telugu) (page history and authors); അക്ഷേപം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); blame (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਇਲਜ਼ਾਮ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); blame (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); କୁ (Odia) (page history and authors); दोष (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); blame (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); غندل (Pashto) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-blame.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Back ache-blame.wav.
Cite this entry: “blame.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/blame. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.