culprit

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] 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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkʌl.pɹɨt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

culprit (plural culprits)

1. 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.

   • 2012 June 9, Owen Phillips, “Euro 2012: Netherlands 0-1 Denmark”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     But the Dutch dominated only to waste numerous efforts, with Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie the main culprits.

2. (UK, law) A prisoner accused but not yet tried.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:criminal

Related terms

• culpable
• mea culpa

Translations

culprit

• Bulgarian: обвиняем (bg) m (obvinjaem), подсъдим (bg) m (podsǎdim)
• Catalan: culpable (ca) m or f
• Czech: viník m
• Dutch: schuldige (nl), dader (nl) m
• Finnish: syyllinen (fi), syypää (fi)
• French: coupable (fr) m or f
• German: Beschuldigter (de) m, Missetäter m, Schuldiger (de) m, Täter (de) m, Übeltäter (de) m, (law) Beklagter (de) m
• Greek: ένοχος (el) m or f (énochos), φταίχτης (el) m (ftaíchtis)
• Indonesian: pembuat ulah, pelaku (id)
• Irish: ciontach
• Italian: colpevole (it), reo (it) m
• Latvian: vaininieks m, vaininiece f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: synder (no) m

• Polish: delikwent m, winowajca (pl) m
• Portuguese: culpado (pt) m
• Russian: вино́вник (ru) m (vinóvnik), обвиня́емый (ru) m (obvinjájemyj), подсуди́мый (ru) m (podsudímyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: krivac (sh), vinovnik (sh)
• Spanish: culpable (es) m
• Swedish: brottsling (sv) c, förövare (sv) c, gärningsman (sv) c
• Turkish: mücrim (tr), suçlu (tr), zanlı (tr), (law): hükümlü (tr), sanık (tr)
• Vietnamese: thủ phạm (vi)
• Walloon: coupåbe (wa) m or f
• Welsh: euog (cy) m or f