horticulture
Americannoun
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the cultivation of a garden, orchard, or nursery; the cultivation of flowers, fruits, vegetables, or ornamental plants.
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the science and art of cultivating such plants.
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of horticulture
First recorded in 1670–80; from Latin hort(us) “garden” + (agr)iculture
Explanation
Horticulture is a nice long word for "gardening." If you study horticulture, you learn about plant propagation, soil, fertilizer — everything that makes a good garden. The word horticulture was coined in the late 17th century — when some serious gardens were being planned and executed in England — and is based on the Latin word for "garden," hortus, combined with the suffix -culture, mostly likely in the same way as the word agriculture.
Vocabulary lists containing horticulture
Tangerine
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Dirty Words: The Language of Gardening
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Human Geography - Middle School
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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.
"The idea is, can we use food-based interventions to modulate inflammation?" said lead author Jessica Cooperstone, associate professor of horticulture and crop science at The Ohio State University.
From Science Daily • May 30, 2026
An almost 50-year-old horticulture company in Bakersfield, Calif., is rolling out an AI agent that connects its growers with decades of wisdom from professional agronomists.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 9, 2026
"Ultimately, we need a more diversified agricultural model, with fewer cattle, and more horticulture, organics and tillage," he told AFP.
From Barron's • Nov. 11, 2025
“You have to keep them on separate irrigation zones,” said Tim Becker, horticulture director for the Theodore Payne Foundation.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 8, 2025
She gave us lectures on women’s suffrage, Shakespeare, Beethoven, English history, and horticulture, and always had two freezers of homemade ice cream, which was why we all went.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
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.
