English Explanatory Dictionary

culture

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The arts, customs, lifestyles, background, and habits that characterize humankind, or a particular society or nation.
  2. The beliefs, values, behaviour, and material objects that constitute a people's way of life.
  3. The conventional conducts and ideologies of a community; the system comprising the accepted norms and values of a society.
  4. Any knowledge passed from one generation to the next, not necessarily with respect to human beings.
  5. Cultivation.
  6. The process of growing a bacterial or other biological entity in an artificial medium.
  7. The growth thus produced.
  8. A group of bacteria.
  9. The details on a map that do not represent natural features of the area delineated, such as names and the symbols for towns, roads, meridians, and parallels.
  10. Ellipsis of archaeological culture (“recurring assemblage of artifacts from a specific time and place that may constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society”).
  11. Ethnicity, race (and its associated arts, customs, etc.)
verb
  1. to maintain in an environment suitable for growth (especially of bacteria) (compare cultivate)
  2. to increase the artistic or scientific interest (in something) (compare cultivate)

Pronunciation

/ˈkʌlt͡ʃə/ En-uk-culture.ogg /ˈkʌlt͡ʃɚ/ En-us-culture.ogg

Word forms

culture cultures culcha culturing cultured

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kʷelh₁- Proto-Indo-European *kʷélh₁-e-ti Proto-Italic *kʷelō Latin colō Proto-Indo-European *-tew-? Proto-Indo-European *-r-eh₂? Latin -tūra Latin cultūrader. Middle French cultureder. English culture From Middle French culture (“cultivation; culture”), from Latin cultūra (“cultivation; culture”), from cultus, perfect passive participle of colō (“till, cultivate, to grow, worship”) (related to colōnus and colōnia), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to move; to turn (around)”).

Related words

agriculture acculturation cult cultivate cultural cultural criticism culturally cultured culture shock horticulture

Derived words

acculture adult third culture kid algaculture anticulture aquaculture archaeological culture astaciculture aviculture biculture bioculture bro culture callout culture call-out culture cancel culture canteen culture cassette culture Cemetery H culture coculture coffee culture compensation culture conculture coproculture counter culture counterculture cringe culture cryoculture culturability culturable culturagram culturati culturcide culture-bound culturecide culture-fair cultureful culture god culture-god culture hero culture-hero culture-historical culture-jack culturejack culture jamming cultureless culturelike culture maker culturemaker cultureme culture medium culture of death culturescape cultureshed culture victory culture vulture culture war cultureware culture warrior culturewide culturewise culturgen
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