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We would be culpable—that is, deserving of blame—if we didn’t clearly explain the origin of culprit. Yes, it is related to culpable, which itself comes (via Middle English and Anglo-French) from the Latin verb culpare, meaning “to blame.” But the etymology of culprit is not so straightforward. In Anglo-French, culpable meant “guilty,” and this was abbreviated “cul.” in legal briefs and texts. Culprit was formed by combining this abbreviation with the Anglo-French word prest or prit, meaning “ready”; literally, a culprit was one who was ready to be proven guilty. The word was eventually adopted into English and used to refer to someone who is accused of a wrongdoing. The word has since taken on an additional meaning: “the source or cause of a problem.”
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Examples of culprit in a Sentence
Benjamin Oreskes, Los Angeles Times, 9 Apr. 2024
But there were other regrettable incidents in which the culprit may have been simple human error and the ordinary bureaucratic disarray of any sizable public school.
—Jessica Winter, The New Yorker, 3 Apr. 2024
The culprit was the main storm clouds overhead, which became very unstable as their temperature — at around 25,000 feet — hovered at nearly minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
—Gary Robbins, San Diego Union-Tribune, 1 Apr. 2024
Capsaicin is the culprit of the spicy heat in hot peppers.
—Anthea Levi, Health, 30 Mar. 2024
The team heads back to the motel and realizes that the person in the room with the adjoining door is the likely culprit to have swiped the samples.
—Sara Netzley, EW.com, 25 Mar. 2024
In 1948, The Indianapolis News reported the coke plant was found to be emitting hydrogen sulfide gas, the likely culprit of the purple houses.
—Karl Schneider, The Indianapolis Star, 20 Mar. 2024
The main culprit for this migration trend is housing affordability in cities.
—Sydney Lake, Fortune, 19 Mar. 2024
The culprit for the disruption lies on a sudden atmospheric warming caused by planetary waves that jostle the stratosphere from below and can reverse a vortex's flow, according to NOAA.
—Eric Lagatta, USA TODAY, 28 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'culprit.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Culprit.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culprit. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
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Kids Definition
culprit
noun
More from Merriam-Webster on culprit
Nglish: Translation of culprit for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of culprit for Arabic Speakers
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