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# culpability

«culpability» in Mova's school dictionary: **being to blame for something wrong or bad** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (culpability — uncountable)

### meaning for a pupil

(formal, law) Culpability is being to blame for something wrong or bad. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/culpability/#m1)

### sense in the lessons

A stiff word used in law, news and serious discussions of right and wrong: courts decide a person's culpability; in ethics lessons we ask how much someone is to blame if they did not mean the harm. Phrases: «accept culpability», «deny culpability», «moral culpability».

### examples

- The court had to decide the driver's culpability for the crash. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/culpability/#x1)
- The company denied any culpability for the oil spill. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/culpability/#x2)
- He accepted culpability and apologised. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/culpability/#x3)
- Being a child can reduce a person's culpability in law. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/culpability/#x4)
- The inquiry looked at the culpability of the officials. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/culpability/#x5)
- Culpability is greater when harm is done on purpose. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/culpability/#x6)

### note

Uncountable. Adjective: culpable (to blame). Everyday words: blame, guilt, fault. Related: culprit.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «culpability» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/culpability/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.