Make Your Point > Archived Issues > EXCULPATE
Send Make Your Point issues straight to your inbox.
connect this word to others:
You can almost see the word culprit ("wrongdoer") inside our word exculpate ("to clear from the charge of wrongdoing") and inside these other closely related terms:
1. The word __culp__le describes someone innocent who deserves no blame or punishment.
2. The phrase "____culp_," Latin for "through my own fault," means "I'm sorry" or "I'm to blame."
Can you recall both?
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
make your point with...
"EXCULPATE"
This word has Latin roots meaning "to (clear) from blame."
To exculpate people is to free them from blame, guilt, or punishment, usually in an official, public way.
Pronunciation:
Either "EX cull pate" (my preference)
or "ex CULL pate."
Part of speech:
Verb, the transitive kind: "the evidence exculpates her," "they were exculpated by the judge," "the history books eventually exculpated him," "the speaker attempted to exculpate them, to no avail."
Other forms:
There's "exculpated," "exculpating," and "exculpation" (EX cull PAY shun).
You can call things "exculpatory" (ex CULL puh tore ee), meaning they have the power to set people free from blame.
And you can call people "exculpable" (ex CULL puh bull), meaning they're able to be freed from the charges against them.
The exact opposite of "exculpate" is the rarely used word "inculpate," meaning "to blame someone, to charge someone with a crime, to show that someone is guilty or deserves punishment." You might find it handy to know the adjective, "inculpable."
How to use it:
Well, I'm tempted to say that "exculpate" is an ugly, awkward word. But I imagine it's beautiful to people who hope for exculpation, whether they deserve it or not.
Either way, it's a formal word, a serious one that calls to mind lawyers, courtrooms, and the forgiveness that society as a whole either offers or denies. (Often it's judges in courtrooms who exculpate people, setting them free to go about their lives; but sometimes it's a partner, a family, a peer group, a subculture, or a whole society who offers or denies exculpation.)
So, talk about people, groups, evidence, testimony, and other things that exculpate people. "The video footage clearly exculpates him." "The transcript of the phone call exculpates no one."
You can also say that things exculpate people from blame, or from some charge or accusation. "This video footage exculpates them from the charge; they took no part in the robbery."
examples:
"The longer and more often you misremember something, the truer it becomes. Misremembering a bad thing as less bad might liberate a survivor, but it also might exculpate a perpetrator. So the responsibility for that memory becomes a collective one."
— Margaret Lyons, New York Times, 24 May 2018
"She refused a blindfold and by some accounts even smiled at her executioners. Margaretha Zelle, a.k.a. 'Mata Hari,' an exotic dancer and convicted spy, met her end at age 41 at the hands of a firing squad outside Paris... However the public chose to remember her, the German government exculpated Mata Hari in 1930."
— Ray Cavanaugh, Time, 13 October 2017
has this page helped you understand "exculpate"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "exculpate" without saying "to free from blame" or "to clear of any wrongdoing."
try it out:
Consider how, as a whole, society may never exculpate those who committed atrocities during the Holocaust.
Neither will Eva Mozes Kor, a Holocaust survivor whose family was killed. She wants those at fault to stand trial and to be prosecuted. She doesn't exculpate them. But she does forgive them.
Kor said, "My forgiveness.. is my act of self-healing, self-liberation and self-empowerment... It's for you to know that you forgive, and you can go on with your life without the burden and pain that the Nazis or anybody else ever imposed on you."
NPR added, "For Kor, forgiveness does not mean that the perpetrators are absolved of their crimes."
Talk about the relationship between exculpation and forgiveness. How are they the same? How are they different? Could you give an example of when you offered one but not the other, or both, or neither?
before you review, play:
Spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—let your working memory empty out first.
Our game this month: Anagrams!
Rearrange the letters in the given word to form a word we've studied before. Try to recall its meaning, too.
For example, if I give you DYED, you give me EDDY. If I give you THREAD, you give me DEARTH. And if I give you COTERIES, you give me ESOTERIC.
Try this last one today: CONSOLIDATES.
Give yourself 5 points if you can figure out the word without clues. To reveal the clues, hover over the blue text below.
Give yourself 4 points if you figure it out after peeking at the part of speech: adjective.
Give yourself 3 points if you figure it out after peeking at the definition: so sad that they can't even be comforted or cheered up by anything.
Give yourself 2 points if you figure it out after peeking at the first letter: D.
Give yourself 1 point if you figure it out after peeking at the first two letters: DI.
And if you'd like to reveal or review the word, click here.
review this word:
1. A near opposite of EXCULPATORY is
A. INCRIMINATING.
B. COMPLICATING.
C. EXONERATING.
2. According to The Guardian, a documentary about Edward Kennedy closes with "news footage of voters largely exculpating him," saying things like, "_____."
A. What a weirdo
B. The guy's a good guy
C. I do think he's a murderer
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
You can almost see the word culprit ("wrongdoer") inside our word exculpate ("to clear from the charge of wrongdoing") and inside these other closely related terms:
"EXCULPATE" This word has Latin roots meaning "to (clear) from blame."
"The longer and more often you misremember something, the truer it becomes. Misremembering a bad thing as less bad might liberate a survivor, but it also might exculpate a perpetrator. So the responsibility for that memory becomes a collective one."
Explain the meaning of "exculpate" without saying "to free from blame" or "to clear of any wrongdoing."
Consider how, as a whole, society may never exculpate those who committed atrocities during the Holocaust.
Spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—let your working memory empty out first.
1. A near opposite of EXCULPATORY is
|