verb / noun · neutral
blame
/bleɪm/BLAME
Band 6-7task2speaking
to assign responsibility for a fault or wrong; responsibility for a fault
Examples
“You can't always blame others for your own mistakes.”
“The politician tried to shift the blame onto the opposition.”
“She took the blame for the missing files.”
Band 8 sentence
“Rather than placing blanket blame on frontline workers, policymakers should examine systemic failures that produced the crisis.”
Collocations
- to place the blame on
- take the blame
- to blame someone for
Word family
blame verb / nounblameless adjectiveblameworthy adjectiveblaming verb (gerund)
Common mistakes
He is blame for the error.→He is to blame for the error.
They blamed to him.→They blamed him.
Say it for a higher band
5accuse→6fault→7+blame
Synonyms
accuse
fault
Easily confused
fault
“It wasn't his fault that the system failed.”
Related words
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In -ful / -less
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