multicultural
Americanadjective
adjective
Etymology
Origin of multicultural
Explanation
Multicultural things are made up of or include more than one ethnic group or culture. Your multicultural food fair might include dishes from Chile, Syria, Sudan, and France. The world is multicultural, and societies in most countries are multicultural. We all need to learn about people whose religions, skin color, histories, and cultures are completely different from ours — you can get this from multicultural education, like a world history class that includes multicultural perspectives. When the word multicultural was first used in the mid-twentieth century, it often referred to Canada. Multi- means "many," and cultural comes from the Latin cultura, "cultivating."
Vocabulary lists containing multicultural
The United States
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The Modern Period, c. 1750 to c. 1914
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"The Latehomecomer" by Kao Kalia Yang
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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.
It may well be true that stitching multicultural communities together requires us to be more curious, inclusive neighbors.
From Slate • May 26, 2026
It was this same practicality that pushed her to get a job at the Inner City Cultural Center, a multicultural theater company born in the wake of the Watts Uprising.
From Los Angeles Times • May 7, 2026
But the city is one of the most multicultural in the world, and there’s a lot more to its food than steak frites.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026
"This is our fourth generation in Pakistan," he said, adding there are more than 106 Bengali neighbourhoods in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city which is known as a multicultural melting pot.
From Barron's • Feb. 23, 2026
A multicultural interpretation of US history emphasizes only the “contributions” of groups that were ignored in the dominant origin myth, including Indigenous peoples, women, African Americans, and immigrants.
From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
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.
