Definition of culture
1 a
: the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group;
also
: the characteristic features of everyday existence (such as diversions or a way of life) shared by people in a place or time
- popular culture
- Southern culture
b
: the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization
- a corporate culture focused on the bottom line
c
: the set of values, conventions, or social practices associated with a particular field, activity, or societal characteristic
- studying the effect of computers on print culture
- Changing the culture of materialism will take time …
- —Peggy O'Mara
d
: the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations
2 a
: enlightenment and excellence of taste acquired by intellectual and aesthetic training
b
: acquaintance with and taste in fine arts, humanities, and broad aspects of science as distinguished from vocational and technical skills
- a person of culture
3
: the act or process of cultivating living material (such as bacteria or viruses) in prepared nutrient media;
also
: a product of such cultivation
4
: cultivation, tillage
- We ought to blame the culture, not the soil.
- —Alexander Pope
5
: the act of developing the intellectual and moral faculties especially by education
6
: expert care and training
- beauty culture
