culture · noun — the arts, customs, lifestyles, background, and habits that characterize humankind, or a particular society or nation. It carries an Arena rating of 1654, earned across 20 head-to-head judged battles.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, culture ranks #6 of 17,187 for Most Malleable Words, #1,684 of 17,188 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #2,154 of 17,197 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #4,345 of 17,130 for Most Ponderous Words.
culture is pronounced /ˈkʌlt͡ʃə/.
Why “culture” is a great word
Culture is the totality of the arts, customs, beliefs, values, and material objects that constitute a particular society's way of life. From the Latin cultura ("a cultivating, agriculture"), figuratively "care, culture," from the verb colere ("to till, to cultivate"). Unlike "civilization," which often carries a sheen of complexity or progress, or "custom," a singular, repeated practice, culture is the entire, interwoven pattern of a people. It is the careful tending of sourdough starter passed through generations, the worn path to a village shrine, and the low murmur of a language spoken only at hearthsides—the quiet, persistent tending of meaning across generations.
❧ Essay by Lexicurio’s AI · definition, etymology & citations from published sources
Etymology
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)”).
noun
- The arts, customs, lifestyles, background, and habits that characterize humankind, or a particular society or nation.e.g.“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.” — 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 125:
- The beliefs, values, behaviour, and material objects that constitute a people's way of life.
- The conventional conducts and ideologies of a community; the system comprising the accepted norms and values of a society.e.g.“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.” — 2012 March-April, Jan Sapp, “Race Finished”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 05 Sep 2015, page 164:
- Any knowledge passed from one generation to the next, not necessarily with respect to human beings.
- Cultivation.e.g.“http://counties.cce.cornell.edu/suffolk/grownet/flowers/sprgbulb.htm
The Culture of Spring-Flowering Bulbs”
- The process of growing a bacterial or other biological entity in an artificial medium.
- The growth thus produced.e.g.“I'm headed to the lab to make sure my cell culture hasn't died.”
- A group of bacteria.
- 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.
- Ethnicity, race (and its associated arts, customs, etc.).
verb
- to maintain in an environment suitable for growth (especially of bacteria) (compare cultivate)
- to increase the artistic or scientific interest (in something) (compare cultivate)
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.