culture

noun cul·ture \ ˈkəl-chər \

|Updated on: 12 Aug 2018

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

See culture defined for English-language learners

See culture defined for kids

Examples of culture in a Sentence

In this new view, genes allow the human mind to learn, remember, imitate, imprint language, absorb culture and express instincts. —Matt Ridley, Time, 2 June 2003
Such an explanation seems sensible to a technologically advanced and ruthlessly competitive culture like our own, where anybody who fails to get at least a college degree … risks spending a life busing tables or telemarketing. —Natalie Angier, New York Times, 2 July 2002
There is an Arctic Indian tribe, the Gwich'in—the northernmost Indians in the United States—who base their diet and culture on the caribou. —Jimmy Carter, National Geographic Traveler, October 2001
Underlying the question "Is this as good as it gets?" was a female j'accuse—against a consumer culture where values like caring had been severely discounted. —Susan Faludi, Newsweek, 8 Jan. 2001
a study of Greek language and culture
Her art shows the influence of pop culture.
It's important to learn about other cultures.
The company's corporate culture is focused on increasing profits.
an area that has been criticized for its lack of culture

Recent Examples of culture from the Web

Within one day, street culture was elevated to global couture, and a worldwide clamor for the products began.

— candice baker yacono, latimes.com, "Louis Vuitton South Coast Plaza reopens with store-exclusive merchandise," 12 July 2018
The scene serves as a reminder of how genuinely awful patriarchal culture can be and engenders sympathy for anyone who wants to undermine it.

— ben sachs, Chicago Reader, "Lesbian revolutionaries smash sexual taboos to undermine the patriarchy in Bruce LaBruce's The Misandrists," 6 July 2018
This internet culture is cruel and does not serve a greater purpose.

— de elizabeth, Teen Vogue, "Gigi Hadid Responds to Instagram Account Calling Her Relationship With Zayn Malik "Fake"," 4 July 2018
The Warriors are pretty much an Olympic or All-Star team, and the culture is similar to the one Cousins thrived in with the national squad.

— jason jones, sacbee, "Looking past DeMarcus Cousins’ scowl: What the Warriors will learn about the ‘Big Kid’," 4 July 2018
The culture is paying more attention to the tragedies fueling the Black Lives Matter movement, yet also to goofy, passionate, genre-busting black talents such as Stanfield, Riley, Glover, Thompson and Peele.

— amy nicholson, chicagotribune.com, "Is Hollywood ready for the brilliant weirdness of Lakeith Stanfield?," 3 July 2018
Sexism, power, and a culture of silence is precisely part of the problem.

— nicolas nguyen, STAT, "‘Benign sexism’ intrudes at a meeting of the world’s brightest minds," 3 July 2018
There have been enough ugly noises coming from the company to indicate that the culture is an issue, particularly on its internal message boards.

— ellen mcgirt, Fortune, "raceAhead: Remembering the Capital Gazette Victims," 29 June 2018
The dominant culture today is tribalism and bitter partisanship.

— amanda paulson, The Christian Science Monitor, "Why these young Republicans see hope in climate action," 28 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'culture.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of culture

Middle English, cultivated land, cultivation, from Anglo-French, from Latin cultura, from cultus, past participle — see cult

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 15th century

in the meaning defined at sense 4

See Words from the same year

culture Synonyms

Other Agriculture/Gardening Terms

fallow, graft, heirloom, loam, potash, soilage, swath, tilth, windfall

culture

verb

Definition of culture

cultured; culturing play \ˈkəlch-riŋ, ˈkəl-chə-\

transitive verb

1 : cultivate

2 a : to grow in a prepared medium

culture microorganisms

b : to start a culture from (see ¹culture 3)

culture soil

See culture defined for English-language learners

Examples of culture in a Sentence

The virus is cultured in the laboratory from samples of infected tissue.
culture bacteria in laboratory dishes

Recent Examples of culture from the Web

The university cultures some of these dangerous parasites to study them.

— bradley j. fikes, sandiegouniontribune.com, "UCSD steps up fight against tropical parasitical diseases," 4 July 2018
The center includes cell culturing equipment to grow lung cells from patients, to be used for drug screening.

— bradley j. fikes, sandiegouniontribune.com, "Vertex Pharmaceuticals opens expanded San Diego research center with focus on cystic fibrosis," 18 June 2018
There’s some confusion over how meat grown by culturing animal cells will be regulated.

— Washington Post, "Meat 2.0? Clean meat? Spat shows the power of food wording," 19 June 2018
Thanks to a streamlined hormonal regimen and a simplified device for culturing embryos, an IVF cycle at ABC costs just £2,500, including all tests, medicines, and doctor visits.

— anna louie sussman, Bloomberg.com, "Falling Birthrates Call for More Accessible Fertility Treatment," 18 June 2018
They are being used to tackle the sorts of experiments that people once thought would occur on the ISS, including testing artificial gravity or culturing cells and growing protein crystals.

— konstantin kakaes, Vox, "NASA’s leader wants to privatize the International Space Station. It’s a remarkably terrible idea.," 8 June 2018
The company cultures cord-blood stem cells in nicotinamide, a form of vitamin B3, for three weeks before transplant.

— ron winslow, WSJ, "New Promise for Bone-Marrow Transplants," 28 May 2018
While its lenses were not necessarily more reliable than instruments produced by competitors in England and France, Zeiss’s advertising cultured a belief in the value of standardization for lens quality.

— allain daigle, The Atlantic, "How the 50-mm Lens Became ‘Normal’," 13 May 2018
Samples are cultured from the swabs taken from the patients' penises.

— sophie cousins, CNN, "Wherever you are in the world, time is running out for treating gonorrhea," 15 May 2018

Origin and Etymology of culture

see ¹culture

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1510

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

culture Synonyms

Synonyms

crop, cultivate, dress, grow, promote, raise, rear, tend;

Near Antonyms

kill;

dig, extirpate, pick, pluck, pull (up), uproot;

cut, hay, mow;

Related Words

breed, produce, propagate;

plant, sow;

gather, glean, harvest, reap;

germinate, quicken, ripen, root, sprout;

Other Biology Terms

autochthonous, fecund, homunculus, phylogeny, substrate

CULTURE Defined for English Language Learners

culture

noun

Definition of culture for English Language Learners

: the beliefs, customs, arts, etc., of a particular society, group, place, or time
: a particular society that has its own beliefs, ways of life, art, etc.
: a way of thinking, behaving, or working that exists in a place or organization (such as a business)

culture

verb

Definition of culture for English Language Learners

: to grow (something) in controlled conditions

CULTURE Defined for Kids

culture

noun cul·ture \ ˈkəl-chər \

Definition of culture for Students

1 : cultivation 1

2 : the raising or development (as of a crop or product) by careful attention

grape culture

3 : the appreciation and knowledge of the arts (as music, dance, and painting)

4 : the habits, beliefs, and traditions of a particular people, place, or time

Greek culture

Medical Dictionary

culture

noun cul·ture \ ˈkəl-chər \

medical Definition of culture

1 a : the integrated pattern of human behavior that includes thought, speech, action, and artifacts and depends upon the human capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations

b : the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group

2 a : the act or process of growing living material (as bacteria or viruses) in prepared nutrient media

b : a product of cultivation in nutrient media

—