culprit

culprit

English

Etymology

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.

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:

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

2. (Britain, 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

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