colpevole

Colpevole is an Italian adjective meaning guilty or culpable, used to describe a person who bears responsibility for a wrongdoing or crime. The term derives from the noun colpa, meaning fault or blame, and the suffix -evole, which forms adjectives indicating responsibility or deserving of. In Italian, colpevole has the same form for masculine and feminine, and the plural is colpevoli for both genders.

In legal contexts, colpevole denotes that a court has found the person responsible for a crime. The expression is common in verdicts and legal discussion, as in “l’imputato è ritenuto colpevole.” The opposite is innocente or non colpevole, while an acquittal is conveyed by terms such as assolto. The abstract noun associated with the concept is colpevolezza, meaning culpability or blameworthiness.

Colpevole can be used more broadly outside the courtroom to indicate blame in moral or everyday language, though in formal writing it remains closely tied to legal responsibility. Related terms include colpa (fault or blame), dolo (intent or malice), and responsabilità (responsibility).

Overall, colpevole functions as a standard Italian adjective for describing someone deemed legally or morally responsible for a wrongdoing, with clear legal usage and well-defined linguistic forms.