Meanings
plural culpable homicides
- countableuncountableUsed other than figuratively or idiomatically: see culpable, homicide.
a. Culpable homicide is called murder when you mean to cause someone to die.
2002, Les Vandor, Legal Counsel: Criminal Law - Frequently Asked Questions, →ISBN, page 282 more examples
Culpable homicide is not murder if the offender, while deprived of the power of self-control by grave and sudden provocation, causes the death of the person who gave the provocation […]
2011, Krishan Vij, Textbook of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, →ISBN, page 205Section 300 defines murder, which is also a culpable homicide with some special characteristics, […]
2011, Legal Aptitude and Legal Reasoning for the CLAT and LLB Examinations, →ISBN, page 31 - countableuncountableHomicide which is culpable but does not rise to the level of murder; unlawful killing of a human being which does not constitute murder.
The distinction between murder and culpable homicide not amounting to murder is fine but appreciable.
1994, Lee Peng Kok, Mental Disorders and the Law, →ISBN, page 1562 more examples
A charge of culpable homicide found relevant against both a shopkeeper and his servant, in respect that the former had culpably entrusted his servant with the charge of drugs which were sold in the shop, and the latter had culpably dispensed to a customer such an excessive dose of tartar emetic as to cause death. Henderson (High Court), 13 June 1842; 1 Broun 360.
1868, Digest of Cases Decided in the Supreme Courts of Scotland, from 1800 to 1868, page 454But it may amount to culpable homicide to cause the death of a living child, if any part of that child has been brought forth, though the child may not have breathed or been completely born.
1895, The Indian Penal Code: With Commentary, by W. R. Hamilton, section 200, page 313
Translations
Dutch dood door schuld
- dood door schuldhomicide which is culpable but does not rise to the level of murder
Finnish tappo
- tappohomicide which is culpable but does not rise to the level of murder
Italian omicidio colposo
- omicidio colposohomicide which is culpable but does not rise to the level of murder
Cite this entry
culpable homicide. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/culpable%20homicide
“culpable homicide.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/culpable%20homicide. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “culpable homicide,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/culpable%20homicide.
Source: culpable homicide on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.