Meanings
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1
noun
a person responsible for a crime, wrongdoing, or problem
Investigators identified the culprit from the security footage.
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2
noun
the thing that causes a problem or undesirable result
A loose connection was the culprit behind the intermittent power loss.
Thesaurus
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Word family
Etymology
From the Anglo-Norman legal abbreviation cul. prit, representing culpable: prest, roughly guilty: ready to prove our case. English speakers reinterpreted the formula as a noun for the accused person; Latin culpa, meaning blame, influenced its later associations.