culture

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See also: culturé

English

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Alternative forms

  • culcha (pronunciation spelling)

Etymology

From Middle French culture (“cultivation; culture”), from Latin cultūra (“cultivation; culture”), from cultus, perfect passive participle of colō (“till, cultivate, worship”) (related to colōnus and colōnia), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to move; to turn (around)”).

Pronunciation

Noun

culture (countable and uncountable, plural cultures)

  2. The arts, customs, lifestyles, background, and habits that characterize humankind, or a particular society or nation.
    • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 125:
      Castration of bulls was a socialization process that turned a bull into an ox; in this transformation something wild became something very useful; nature became culture.
    • 2013 September 7, “Farming as rocket science”, in The Economist‎, volume 408, number 8852:
      Such differences of history and culture have lingering consequences. Almost all the corn and soyabeans grown in America are genetically modified. GM crops are barely tolerated in the European Union. Both America and Europe offer farmers indefensible subsidies, but with different motives.
  4. The beliefs, values, behaviour, and material objects that constitute a people's way of life.
    • 1882, Matthew Arnold, “Sweetness and Light”, in Culture and Anarchy:
      I condemn neither way; but culture works differently. It does not try to teach down to the level of inferior classes; it does not try to win them for this or that sect of its own, with ready-made judgments and watchwords. It seeks to do away with classes; to make the best that has been thought and known in the world current everywhere; […]
  6. The conventional conducts and ideologies of a community; the system comprising the accepted norms and values of a society.
    • 2012 March-April, Jan Sapp, “Race Finished”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 2, page 164:
      Few concepts are as emotionally charged as that of race. The word conjures up a mixture of associations—culture, ethnicity, genetics, subjugation, exclusion and persecution.
  8. (anthropology) Any knowledge passed from one generation to the next, not necessarily with respect to human beings.
  10. (botany, agriculture) Cultivation.
  12. (microbiology) The process of growing a bacterial or other biological entity in an artificial medium.
  14. The growth thus produced.
    I'm headed to the lab to make sure my cell culture hasn't died.
  16. A group of bacteria.
  18. (cartography) 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.
  20. (archaeology) A recurring assemblage of artifacts from a specific time and place that may constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society.
  22. (euphemistic) Ethnicity, race (and its associated arts, customs, etc.)

Derived terms

Terms derived from culture (noun)

Related terms

Translations

botany: cultivation — see cultivation

Verb

culture (third-person singular simple present cultures, present participle culturing, simple past and past participle cultured)

  1. (transitive) to maintain in an environment suitable for growth (especially of bacteria) (compare cultivate)
  2. (transitive) to increase the artistic or scientific interest (in something) (compare cultivate)

Related terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

References

  • “culture”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
  • culture in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
  • "culture" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 87.
  • “culture”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cultūra (“cultivation; culture”), from cultus, perfect passive participle of colō (“till, cultivate, worship”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to move; to turn (around)”).

Pronunciation

Noun

culture f (plural cultures)

  1. crop
  2. culture (“arts, customs and habits”)

Derived terms

Descendants

  • → Turkish: kültür

Further reading

Friulian

Noun

culture f (plural culturis)

  1. culture

Related terms

Italian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kulˈtu.re/
  • Rhymes: -ure
  • Hyphenation: cul‧tù‧re

Noun

culture f

  1. plural of cultura

Latin

Participle

cultūre

  1. vocative masculine singular of cultūrus

Middle English

Noun

culture

  1. Alternative form of culter

Spanish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kulˈtuɾe/
  • Rhymes: -uɾe
  • Syllabification: cul‧tu‧re

Verb

culture

  1. inflection of culturar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative
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