Disculpar

Today’s Spanish word of the day is “disculpar”. It’s a verb meaning “to forgive” or “to excuse”.

In the reflexive form “disculparse”, it translates as “to apologize”.

One way to say “sorry” or “excuse me” in Spanish is to simply say “disculpe” (formal) or “disculpa” (informal).

The word “disculpar” was formed by joining the prefix dis- (which is used in the same way as the English prefix “dis-”) and culpa (“guilt”).

You might recognize the word “culpa” from the Latin phrase mea culpa, meaning “it was my fault”. The Latin word culpa is also the root of a few English words such as “culpable” and “culprit”.

“Disculpar” is a regular verb conjugated according to the same pattern as other -ar verbs.

Example sentences