acculturate
/əˈkʌl.t͡ʃəˌɹeɪt/
acculturate means to change the culture of (a person) by the influence of another culture, especially a more dominant culture. It carries an Arena rating of 1229, earned across 69 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, acculturate ranks #3,298 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #7,585 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #7,640 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words, #8,867 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound.
acculturate is pronounced /əˈkʌl.t͡ʃəˌɹeɪt/.
Why “acculturate” is a great word
ACCULTURATE — [Verb] To change or cause to change by adapting to or adopting a different culture. A back-formation from 'acculturation', first attested in 1923. Unlike "assimilate," which implies a more complete and often unilateral absorption, or "naturalize," which denotes a formal legal process, to acculturate is to engage in the slower, mutual work of cultural negotiation. It is the careful substitution of spices in a family recipe, the self-conscious softening of an accent in a new city, and the private ritual observed in a public park—the quiet, lifelong project of building a self between two shores, forever carrying the old map, folded, in your pocket.
Etymology
* Back-formation from acculturation; first attested in 1923
verb
- To change the culture of (a person) by the influence of another culture, especially a more dominant culture.
- To cause (a person) to acquire the culture of a society (or of a region, industry, or company), as in the case of children growing up in that culture, immigrants learning that culture, or new hires learning the ropes of a job.
- To be changed by acculturation.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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