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Definition of culprit

culprit

/ˈkʌlprɪt/
cul · prit
Plural:culprits
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culprit Lexical Profile

culprit Game Scores & Validity

• noun

1

A person who is responsible for a crime, offense, or other misdeed; an offender.

Example

"The police reviewed the security footage to identify the culprit behind the burglary."

2

The cause of a problem, defect, or undesirable situation.

Example

"After hours of troubleshooting the network outage, engineers discovered that a faulty router was the main culprit."

Synonyms
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Antonyms
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• Nearby Words

culpability
culpable
culpably
culprit
cult
cultic
cultish

Word Origin & Etymology

Coined in late 17th-century English law courts from the Anglo-French legal formula 'Culpable: prest d'averrer nostre bille' ('Guilty: ready to prove our indictment'), spoken by the prosecutor in response to a defendant's plea of not guilty.

Cite this Entry

Wordmom. (2026). Definition of Culprit. In Wordmom Dictionary. Retrieved Nov 5, 2026, from https://wordmom.com/dictionary/culprit
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