culpable
part of speech
adjective (culpable; more culpable)
meaning for a pupil
(formal, law) Deserving blame for something wrong or bad: «He was culpable for the accident». tree →
sense in the lessons
In law and ethics lessons, being culpable means being responsible for harm and deserving blame; courts decide how culpable someone is, and a person who did not mean harm may be less culpable. In stories and history, characters argue about who is culpable. Phrases: «held culpable», «morally culpable», «culpable negligence», «culpable homicide» (Scotland, law: killing without meaning to murder).
examples
- The driver was found culpable for the crash. tree →
- Everyone who knew about the bullying and did nothing felt a little culpable. tree →
- Is a child as culpable as an adult for breaking a rule? tree →
- The judge said the company was culpable for the pollution. tree →
- In ethics we discussed when someone is morally culpable. tree →
- She was not culpable, because she did not know the bridge was unsafe. tree →
note
Formal; in speech say «to blame» or «guilty». Said «KUL-puh-bul». The noun is «culpability». It comes from Latin «culpa», fault, as in «mea culpa» (my fault). The opposite is «blameless» or «innocent».
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «culpable» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.