cultivated
Americanadjective
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prepared and used for raising crops; tilled.
cultivated land.
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produced or improved by cultivation, as a plant.
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educated; refined; cultured.
cultivated tastes.
adjective
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cultured, refined, or educated
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subjected to tillage or cultivation
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tilled and broken up
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(of plants) specially bred or improved by cultivation
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of cultivated
Explanation
The adjective cultivated is used to describe someone who is polite and civilized. The cultivated people at the party would be very offended by crude behavior. Someone who's cultivated is knowledgeable or at least familiar with the arts, current events, history. He or she probably has traveled widely, or at least has read about other people and places. In other words, a cultivated person is a citizen of the world. As it applies to farming, cultivated soil is tilled, or churned, to prepare it for planting.
Vocabulary lists containing cultivated
"The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell
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Persepolis
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100 SAT words Beginning with "C"
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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.
But water scarcity means that only about a third of that area can actually be cultivated.
From Barron's • Jun. 15, 2026
For decades, she’s cultivated an image built around relentless work ethic, optimism and early mornings spent turning ideas into reality.
From Salon • Jun. 15, 2026
"This study challenges the prevailing narrative of inevitable cognitive decline, suggesting instead that brain health can be proactively cultivated at any age."
From Science Daily • Jun. 13, 2026
Musk has cultivated a massive fan base among retail and institutional investors alike with his ability to craft visions of a sci-fi future.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 12, 2026
The forbidding complex of twenty buildings employed 7,000 people; by some estimates, the Stasi archives contained more than one billion documents describing the vast network of spies and informers cultivated over four decades.
From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau
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.
