Blameworthy means deserving criticism or responsibility for something wrong or harmful that happened. When your actions are blameworthy, you made a choice that caused a problem and should be held accountable for it.

If you forgot to feed your neighbor's cat while they were away, that's blameworthy because you agreed to do it and the cat was counting on you. But if you tried your best to get there and a massive snowstorm blocked every road, that's not blameworthy because the situation was beyond your control.

The word helps us distinguish between honest mistakes and careless or intentional wrongdoing. Breaking a dish while carefully washing it isn't particularly blameworthy. Breaking a dish because you were throwing it around after you'd been told to be careful is blameworthy.

Not every mistake makes someone blameworthy. A baseball player who strikes out isn't blameworthy, they just didn't succeed this time. But a player who skips practice all week and then performs poorly has made blameworthy choices. The difference is whether you could reasonably have done better and chose not to.

The opposite of blameworthy is praiseworthy or blameless.