culprit
/ˈkʌlpɹɪt/
culprit noun: the person or thing at fault for a problem or crime.
Noun
culprit (plural culprits)
- The person or thing at fault for a problem or crime.
- I have tightened the loose bolt that was the culprit; it should work now.
- Another sits beneath the purple canopy—a lady, but alone. The diadem is on her cold and haughty brow; there is no pity in her stern aspect, and the smile on her lip bodes death. Before her stands the lovely culprit, whose fatal beauty, and still more fatal love, are about to be dearly requited.1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 145
- A prisoner accused but not yet tried.
culprit meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu
culprit in Tamil
- குற்றவாளி, தவறிழைத்தவர்
culprit in Urdu
- عاصی, خطا کار, مجرم
culprit in Bengali
- অপরাধী, দোষী ব্যক্তি
culprit in Telugu
- culprit, felon
- దొంగ doṅga
More languagesFewer languages
- culprit in Malayalam
- കുറ്റവാളി kuṟṟavāḷi
- culprit in Kannada
- ತಪ್ಪುಗಾರ, ಅಪರಾಧಿ, ತಪ್ಪಿತಸ್ಥ, ದೋಷಿ
- culprit in Punjabi
- ਦੋਸ਼ੀ dośī
- culprit in Arabic
- مُجْرِم mujrim, جَانِي jānī, مُتَّهَم muttaham
- culprit in Indonesian
- pembuat ulah, pelaku
- culprit in Thai
- คนร้าย kon-ráai, ผู้ร้าย pûu-ráai
- culprit in Vietnamese
- thủ phạm
Examples of culprit in a sentence
- The revelation of the culprits' identities was cathartic for the populace.
- The culprit will be smoked out by the end of the day.
- The culprits were hanged from the nearest tree.
Forms of culprit
| plural | culprits |
|---|
Origin of culprit
From Anglo-Norman cul. prit, contraction of culpable: prest (d'averrer nostre bille) 'guilty: ready (to prove our case)', words used by prosecutor in opening a trial, mistaken in English for an address to the defendant. See culpable. It may have been influenced by Latin culpa (“blame, fault”).
Words formed from culprit
Questions about culprit
- What does culprit mean?
- Culprit means the person or thing at fault for a problem or crime.
- What is culprit in Tamil?
- Culprit in Tamil is குற்றவாளி, தவறிழைத்தவர். See Culprit meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is culprit?
- Culprit is a noun.
- How do you pronounce culprit?
- Culprit is pronounced /ˈkʌlpɹɪt/.
- What is the plural of culprit?
- The plural of culprit is culprits.
Words near culprit in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: culprit (page history and authors); culprit (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); culprit (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Culprit (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); దొంగ (Telugu) (page history and authors); culprit (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਦੋਸ਼ੀ (Punjabi) (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-culprit.ogg.
Cite this entry: “culprit.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/culprit. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.