culture

Etymology

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)”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌlt͡ʃɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌlt͡ʃə/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Noun

culture (countable and uncountable, plural cultures)

1. The arts, customs, lifestyles, background, and habits that characterize a particular society or nation.
   • 2013 September 7, “Farming as rocket science”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8852:

     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.

2. The beliefs, values, behaviour and material objects that constitute a people's way of life.
   • 2012 March-April, Jan Sapp, “Race Finished”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 164:

     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.

3. (anthropology) Any knowledge passed from one generation to the next, not necessarily with respect to human beings.
4. (botany) Cultivation.
   • http://counties.cce.cornell.edu/suffolk/grownet/flowers/sprgbulb.htm

     The Culture of Spring-Flowering Bulbs

5. (microbiology) The process of growing a bacterial or other biological entity in an artificial medium.
6. The growth thus produced.

   I'm headed to the lab to make sure my cell culture hasn't died.

7. The collective noun for a group of bacteria.
8. (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.

Verb

culture (third-person singular simple present cultures, present participle culturing, simple past and past participle cultured)

1. (transitive) To maintain in an environment suitable for growth (especially of bacteria). (Compare cultivate.)
2. (transitive) To increase the artistic or scientific interest (in something). (Compare cultivate.)

See also

• colonus
• colonia
• column
• cycle
• wheel

Further reading

• "culture" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 87.

Etymology

From Latin cultūra (“cultivation; culture”), from cultus, perfect passive participle of colō (“till, cultivate, worship”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to move; to turn (around)”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kyl.tyʁ/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

culture f (plural cultures)

1. crop
2. culture (“arts, customs and habits”)

Further reading

• “culture” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ure

Noun

culture f

1. plural of cultura

Participle

cultūre

1. vocative masculine singular of cultūrus

Verb

culture

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of culturar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of culturar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of culturar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of culturar.