Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

cultured

American  
[kuhl-cherd] / ˈkʌl tʃərd /

adjective

  1. having or characterized by culture; refined; enlightened.

    civilized and cultured peoples; music and other cultured pursuits.
    Synonyms:
    genteel, elegant, sophisticated, polished

  2. artificially nurtured or grown.

    cultured bacteria.

  3. cultivated; tilled.

cultured British  
/ ˈkʌltʃəd /

adjective

  1. showing or having good taste, manners, upbringing, and education

  2. artificially grown or synthesized

    cultured pearls

  3. sport of superior quality, as though the product of special training

    a cultured left foot

    a cultured backhand
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • noncultured adjective
  • overcultured adjective
  • semicultured adjective
  • well-cultured adjective

Etymology

Origin of cultured

First recorded in 1550–745; culture + -ed 2

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The French brasserie with paper-thin radishes, good cultured butter and a pinch of flaky salt.

From Salon • Feb. 18, 2026

This makes for puckish satire of the literati and its highly cultured brand of condescension; at times the movie feels like a South American spin on a Noah Baumbach film.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 29, 2026

Are you watching a more cultured, possession-based style now than you did 10 or 20 years ago - or are you watching your team play without the drive and commitment of years gone by?

From BBC • Dec. 7, 2025

To explore this idea, the team cultured a large quantity of P. sanguinis for three days and then extracted the full mixture of metabolites produced by the microbe.

From Science Daily • Nov. 29, 2025

Lying on the cot in the honey house, though, all I could think was August is so intelligent, so cultured, and I was surprised by this.

From "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.