noun · neutral
culprit
/ˈkʌlprɪt/CUL·prit
the person or thing responsible for a problem or crime
Examples
“The police finally caught the culprit after reviewing CCTV footage.”
“If the data is missing, poor record-keeping may be the culprit.”
“Detectives worked quickly to identify the culprit in the arson case.”
Band 8 sentence
“Thanks to meticulous forensic work, the police were able to identify the real culprit within days.”
Collocations
- identify the culprit
- the real culprit
- main culprit
Word family
Common mistakes
use 'culprit' for any cause without context, e.g. 'the culprit is pollution' (in formal writing)→culprit as person/thing responsible is OK, but in formal Task 2 prefer 'main cause' for systems/issues
say 'the culprits are arrested' when referring to data/error→use 'the culprits were arrested' only when meaning people; use 'the causes were identified' for non-people
Say it for a higher band
5guilty person→6perpetrator→7+culprit
Synonyms
perpetrator
Easily confused
perpetrator
“The perpetrator of the burglary was identified by fingerprints.”
Related words
Learn this word with the rest of its set, and get reminded at the right time.
In Crime & Law
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