What does “culpado” mean in Portuguese?

Culpado is the adjective “guilty,” but drop o in front of it and it becomes a noun: o culpado, “the culprit” — the one who gets the blame. So o maior culpado is “the one most to blame.” It’s the everyday Portuguese word for whoever carries the fault, whether for a lost match, a broken vase, or a crime in the news.

Here Romário owns it head-on before Brazil’s title run: se acontecer resultado negativo, o maior culpado sou eu — “if it goes wrong, I’m the one most to blame.” That adjective-to-noun move is everywhere in Portuguese: ser culpado (“to be guilty”), o culpado é o trânsito (“the traffic is to blame”), declarar alguém culpado (“to find someone guilty”). The opposite is inocente. The related noun is a culpa — “fault” or “blame,” and also the feeling of guilt.