Definitions for guilt
gɪltguilt

Princeton's WordNet(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. guilt, guiltinessnoun

   the state of having committed an offense

2. guilt, guilty conscience, guilt feelings, guilt tripnoun

   remorse caused by feeling responsible for some offense

GCIDE(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. Guiltnoun

   A feeling of regret or remorse for having committed some improper act; a recognition of one's own responsibility for doing something wrong.

   Etymology: [OE. gilt, gult, AS. gylt, crime; probably originally signifying, the fine or mulct paid for an offence, and afterward the offense itself, and akin to AS. gieldan to pay, E. yield. See Yield, v. t.]

Webster Dictionary(5.00 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Guiltverb

   the criminality and consequent exposure to punishment resulting from willful disobedience of law, or from morally wrong action; the state of one who has broken a moral or political law; crime; criminality; offense against right

   Etymology: [OE. gilt, gult, AS. gylt, crime; probably originally signifying, the fine or mulct paid for an offence, and afterward the offense itself, and akin to AS. gieldan to pay, E. yield. See Yield, v. t.]

2. Guiltverb

   exposure to any legal penalty or forfeiture

   Etymology: [OE. gilt, gult, AS. gylt, crime; probably originally signifying, the fine or mulct paid for an offence, and afterward the offense itself, and akin to AS. gieldan to pay, E. yield. See Yield, v. t.]

Freebase(4.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. Guilt

   Guilt is a cognitive or an emotional experience that occurs when a person realizes or believes—accurately or not—that he or she has compromised his or her own standards of conduct or has violated a moral standard, and bears significant responsibility for that violation. It is closely related to the concept of remorse.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Guilt

   gilt, n. punishable conduct: the state of having broken a law: crime: wickedness.—adv. Guilt′ily.—n. Guilt′iness.—adj. Guilt′less, free from crime: innocent.—adv. Guilt′lessly.—n. Guilt′lessness.—adj. Guilt′y, justly chargeable with a crime: wicked: pertaining to guilt.—adv. Guilt′y-like (Shak.), guiltily.—Guilty of (sometimes in B.), deserving. [Orig. a payment or fine for an offence; A.S. gylt, guilt—gildan, to pay, to atone.]

2. Guilt

   gilt, p.adj. (Spens.) gilded.

U.S. National Library of Medicine(4.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. Guilt

   Subjective feeling of having committed an error, offense or sin; unpleasant feeling of self-criticism. These result from acts, impulses, or thoughts contrary to one's personal conscience.

Suggested Resources(1.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. guilt

   The guilt symbol -- In this Symbols.com article you will learn about the meaning of the guilt symbol and its characteristic.

Matched Categories

1. • Condition

British National Corpus

1. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'guilt' in Nouns Frequency: #2024

How to pronounce guilt?

1. Alex

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

How to say guilt in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of guilt in Chaldean Numerology is: 8

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of guilt in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6

Examples of guilt in a Sentence

1. House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff:

   The problem The House impeachment managers have is The House impeachment managers don't want to talk about the evidence, you know as a prosecutor I've seen it time and time again -- when your client is guilty, when your client is dead to rights you don't want to talk about your clients guilt, you want to attack the prosecution. It is a fairly elemental strategy. And I think that's all you're see here is that effort to distract.

2. Lao-tzu, The Way of Lao-tzu:

   There is no calamity greater than lavish desires.There is no greater guilt than discontentment.And there is not greater disaster than greed.

3. Musin Almat Zhumabekovich:

   A woman in a relationship subconsciously continues to play with childish voodoo dolls manipulated with guilt.

4. Roger John:

   Live by what you believe so fully that your life blossoms, or else purge the fear-and-guilt producing beliefs from your life. When people believe one thing and do something else, they are inviting misery. If you give yourself the name, play the game. When you believe something you don't follow with your heart, intellect, and body, it hurts. Don't do that to yourself. Live your belief, or let that belief go. If you are not actively living a belief, it's not really your belief, anyway.

5. Tammy Nelson:

   Sometimes, an affair is a result of an opportunity that comes at a moment of resentment, of instability in the marriage, or at a time when the cheating partner is feeling like they need an ego boost, however, afterwards, the cheater realizes they feel worse because they have violated their own implicit vow to be faithful, and the guilt usually forces them to confess.

Images & Illustrations of guilt

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