Etimology
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)”).
noun
culture (countable and uncountable, plural cultures)
The arts, customs, lifestyles, background, and habits that characterize humankind, or a particular society or nation.
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.
(anthropology) Any knowledge passed from one generation to the next, not necessarily with respect to human beings.
(botany, agriculture) Cultivation.
(microbiology) The process of growing a bacterial or other biological entity in an artificial medium.
The growth thus produced.
A group of bacteria.
(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.
(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.
(euphemistic) Ethnicity, race (and its associated arts, customs, etc.)
Examples
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.
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.
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; […]
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.
The Culture of Spring-Flowering Bulbs
I'm headed to the lab to make sure my cell culture hasn't died.
Related words
related terms
agriculture
verb
culture (third-person singular simple present cultures, present participle culturing, simple past and past participle cultured)
(transitive) to maintain in an environment suitable for growth (especially of bacteria) (compare cultivate)
(transitive) to increase the artistic or scientific interest (in something) (compare cultivate)
Related words
related terms
acculturation
cult
cultivate
cultural
cultural criticism
culturally
cultured
culture shock
horticulture