guilty

/ˈgɪlti/

/ˈgɪlti/

Other forms: guiltier; guiltiest

Someone guilty has done something wrong or illegal. And when you do something wrong, you feel guilty — bad or sorry — about it.

The police are responsible for finding out who’s guilty of a crime so they can be arrested, convicted, and punished. But you can also be guilty of smaller, more legal things, like cheating on a test, breaking the rules of a game, or thinking awful things. If you’ve done it, then you’re guilty of it: so if someone asks if you have a crush on your swim instructor, you can say “guilty!”

Definitions of guilty

1. adjective

   responsible for or chargeable with a reprehensible act
   “guilty of murder”

   “the guilty person”

   “secret guilty deeds”

   synonyms:

   inculpative, inculpatory

   causing blame to be imputed to

   at fault

   deserving blame

   blamable, blameable, blameful, blameworthy, censurable, culpable

   deserving blame or censure as being wrong or evil or injurious

   bloodguilty

   guilty of murder or bloodshed

   chargeable, indictable

   liable to be accused, or cause for such liability

   conscience-smitten

   affected by conscience

   criminal

   guilty of crime or serious offense

   delinquent

   guilty of a misdeed

   finable, fineable

   liable to a fine

   guilt-ridden

   feeling or revealing a sense of guilt

   punishable

   liable to or deserving punishment

   red-handed

   in the act of committing a crime or other reprehensible act

   unrighteous

   not righteous

   antonyms:

   innocent

   free from evil or guilt

   exculpatory

   clearing of guilt or blame

   absolved, clear, cleared, exculpated, exonerated, vindicated

   freed from any question of guilt

   acquitted, not guilty

   declared not guilty of a specific offense or crime; legally blameless

   blameless, inculpable, irreproachable, unimpeachable

   free of guilt; not subject to blame

   righteous

   characterized by or proceeding from accepted standards of morality or justice
2. adjective

   showing a sense of guilt
   “a guilty look”

   synonyms: hangdog, shamed, shamefaced

   ashamed

   feeling shame or guilt or embarrassment or remorse