culprit

Meanings

1. 1nouncountable

   A person who has done something wrong or committed a crime.

   Grammar: Often used with the or the real: find the culprit.

   Patterns

   • the culprit behind something
   • find the culprit

   Police arrested the culprit within a day.

   The teacher asked the culprit to step forward.

   No one knew who the real culprit was.

2. 2nouncountableinformal

   Something that causes a problem, such as a faulty part, habit or substance.

   Grammar: Used for things, often in science, repair and health: the main culprit.

   Patterns

   • the main culprit
   • the culprit behind something

   A loose wire turned out to be the culprit behind the power cut.

   Sugar is often the culprit when kids can't sleep.

   Heavy traffic was the culprit for our delay.

Word forms

Common combinations

the main culprit

Stress is the main culprit in her headaches.

find the culprit

Detectives are trying to find the culprit.

the likely culprit

A leaking pipe is the likely culprit.

identify the culprit

The study helped identify the culprit behind the outbreak.

the real culprit

The delay was not his fault; the real culprit was the weather.

Synonyms and how they differ

offender

Offender is a legal or formal word for someone who has broken the law.

wrongdoer

Wrongdoer covers moral wrongs as well as crimes and is more general.

perpetrator

Perpetrator is used for serious crimes and sounds more formal.

cause

Cause is neutral for what produces an effect, while culprit adds the idea of blame.

Opposites

Word family

culpable adjective

deserving blame

culpability noun

the state of being responsible for a fault

exculpate verb

to clear someone of blame

inculpate verb

to show someone to be guilty

Commonly confused: culprit or culpable?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “culprit”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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