agriculture
Americannoun
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the science, art, or occupation concerned with cultivating land, raising crops, and feeding, breeding, and raising livestock; farming.
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the production of crops, livestock, or poultry.
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of agriculture
First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin agrīcultūra, from agrī (genitive singular of ager “field”) + cultūra culture
Explanation
Agriculture describes the practice of growing crops or raising animals. Someone who works as a farmer is in the agriculture industry. The Latin root of agriculture is agri, or "field," plus cultura, "cultivation." Cultivating a piece of land, or planting and growing food plants on it, is largely what agriculture means. Raising animals for meat or milk also falls under the category of agriculture. If we didn't have agriculture, we'd all be running around the woods, picking berries and trying to shoot things.
Vocabulary lists containing agriculture
The Industrial Revolution - Introductory
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Down on the Farm
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The United States
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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.
Agriculture uses most of the water from the Central Valley Project.
From Los Angeles Times • May 21, 2026
A long-awaited peatland strategy was launched by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs last year.
From BBC • May 15, 2026
When asked for comment, the Department of Agriculture pointed Salon to a recent op-ed from Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins.
From Salon • May 15, 2026
The Department of Agriculture lowered its 2026 U.S. wheat production outlook to 1.56 billion bushels amid drought conditions.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 12, 2026
The Department of Agriculture, in a Home and Garden Bulletin, advises us to spray our clothing with oil solutions of DDT, dieldrin, chlordane, or any of several other moth killers.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
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.
