No matter how big an offence it is on your part, if you are accused of a crime or you are the main source of the fault or the problem, you will be referred to as a culprit. Culprit is a Noun and its first usage dates back to 1670-80.
Pronunciation: kuhl-prit
meanings for Culprit
1) A person who has been charged with an offence
2) A person who is the source of a problem
3) A person guilty of a crime
Master tip to learn Culprit
Culprit can be learnt easily by associating it with word cull, which of course means eliminating rejected members from a herd or as we say simply, killing. Culprit and cull can be associated in a way that we can say culprit should be culled. Further, cul of culprit can be likened to the cull and prit can be likened to an animal and we can say cull the prit.
Sentence examples for Culprit
1) Despite being tried three times, the culprit was insolent enough to insult the jury. (Noun)
2) Culprits were caught on time by the police. (Plural/Noun)
3) The culprit was absolved of his crime. (Noun)
before committing a crime a culprit seems to be disillusioned with the wealth to be amassed.