Culprit [noun]

Gartner cited the pandemic as the primary culprit, due to shelter-in-place rules that resulted in people spending less on mobile devices.

Oh says the main culprit behind the upcoming death of the Hyades is the Milky Way.

So even though much of the evidence so far points to the impact as the mass extinction culprit, uncertainty still lingers.

As a result, the Deccan Traps still hadn’t been ruled out as the main culprit of the dinos’ die-off.

Now, a global inventory of methane sources reveals the major culprits behind rising methane pollution in the 21st century.

WHO announces the culprit behind the pneumonia cases is a novel coronavirus.

And he walked into Lombard Street with the feelings of a culprit walking up the scaffold to his execution.

She had called the culprit to her desk just before the noon recess and now showed her the enormity of her offenses.

All the wrong wrought was his, and yet he sat there, calmly eying me, as though he were a righteous judge and I the culprit.

You inflict a punishment which confers honour on the culprit in the eyes of the only persons for whose opinion he cares.