mea-culpa
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Detailed reference entry for the English word "mea-culpa", 9-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "mea-culpa" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "mea-culpa" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
The verdict
“mea culpa” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as an interjection — the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
Dominant Wiktionary sense: My fault, due to my error; I am to blame.
Compare similar words
See how mea culpa compares against similar English words.
Browse all word comparisons →| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | mea culpa |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| IPA | /ˌmeɪ.əˈkʊl.pə/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “mea culpa” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for mea culpa is 9 letters long, classified as an interjection, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˌmeɪ.əˈkʊl.pə/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "My fault, due to my error; I am to blame.".
No misspelling variants are generated for mea culpa in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From the Latin phrase meā culpā (“through my fault”), ablative case of mea culpa (“my fault, guilt”), taken from the Confiteor, a traditional penitential prayer in Western Christianity. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is mea culpa, spelled M-E-A- -C-U-L-P-A, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1My fault, due to my error; I am to blame.
Etymology
From the Latin phrase meā culpā (“through my fault”), ablative case of mea culpa (“my fault, guilt”), taken from the Confiteor, a traditional penitential prayer in Western Christianity.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “mea culpa”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-E-A- -C-U-L-P-A — every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌmeɪ.əˈkʊl.pə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter M in our English index: