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When did the word culture start referring to customs, not just farming?

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culture

American  

[kuhl-cher] / ˈkʌl tʃər /

noun

• cultures
  plural

1. the quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits, etc.

2. that which is excellent in the arts, manners, etc.

3. a particular form or stage of civilization, as that of a certain nation or period.

   Greek culture.

4. development or improvement of the mind by education or training.

5. the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular group of people, as a social, ethnic, professional, or age group (usually used in combination).

   the youth culture; the drug culture.

6. the shared beliefs, behaviors, or social environment connected with a particular aspect of society.

   the rape culture on campus; the culture of poverty; a culture of celebrity worship.

7. the values, typical practices, and goals of a business or other organization, especially a large corporation.

   Their corporate culture frowns on avoiding risk.

8. Anthropology. the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another.

9. Biology.

   1. the cultivation of microorganisms, as bacteria, or of tissues, for scientific study, medicinal use, etc.

   2. the product or growth resulting from such cultivation.

10. the act or practice of cultivating the soil; tillage.

11. the raising of plants or animals, especially with a view to their improvement.

12. the product or growth resulting from such cultivation.

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verb (used with object)

• cultures,
  present (3rd person singular)
• cultured,
  past participle,  past
• culturing
  present participle

1. to subject to culture; cultivate.

2. Biology.

   1. to grow (microorganisms, tissues, etc.) in or on a controlled or defined medium.

   2. to introduce (living material) into a culture medium.

culture British  

/ ˈkʌltʃə /

noun

1. the total of the inherited ideas, beliefs, values, and knowledge, which constitute the shared bases of social action

2. the total range of activities and ideas of a group of people with shared traditions, which are transmitted and reinforced by members of the group

   the Mayan culture

3. a particular civilization at a particular period

4. the artistic and social pursuits, expression, and tastes valued by a society or class, as in the arts, manners, dress, etc

5. the enlightenment or refinement resulting from these pursuits

6. the attitudes, feelings, values, and behaviour that characterize and inform society as a whole or any social group within it

   yob culture

7. the cultivation of plants, esp by scientific methods designed to improve stock or to produce new ones

8. stockbreeding the rearing and breeding of animals, esp with a view to improving the strain

9. the act or practice of tilling or cultivating the soil

10. biology

    1. the experimental growth of microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi, in a nutrient substance (culture medium), usually under controlled conditions See also culture medium

    2. a group of microorganisms grown in this way

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verb

1. to cultivate (plants or animals)

2. to grow (microorganisms) in a culture medium

culture Scientific  

/ kŭl′chər /

1. A growth of microorganisms, viruses, or tissue cells in a specially prepared nutrient medium under supervised conditions.

2. The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought. Culture is learned and shared within social groups and is transmitted by nongenetic means.

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1. To grow microorganisms, viruses, or tissue cells in a nutrient medium.

culture Cultural  

1. The sum of attitudes, customs, and beliefs that distinguishes one group of people from another. Culture is transmitted, through language, material objects, ritual, institutions, and art, from one generation to the next.

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Usage

What does culture mean? Culture is a collection of behaviors and beliefs associated with a particular group, as in Ming adores Mexican culture, especially Día de Muertos, or Day of the Dead. Culture is also the quality of a person or group of people that comes from appreciating excellence in the arts, fashion, manners, and other characteristics of a society, as in A person of culture, Damon frequently attends the symphony and theater. To culture someone is to expose them to culture, particularly to one that is not their own. In biology and agriculture, a culture is a specific, enclosed group of organisms, such as a cell culture or a group of plants or animals that are separated from the rest. Related to this sense, to culture means to grow such a group of organisms. Example: The culture at my office is one of respect and interest in each others’ projects.

Synonym Usage

See education.

Discover More

Culture also refers to refined music, art, and literature; one who is well versed in these subjects is considered “cultured.”

Anthropologists consider that the requirements for culture (language use, tool making, and conscious regulation of sex) are essential features that distinguish humans from other animals.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• anticulture
  noun
• culturist
  noun
• interculture
  noun
• multiculture
  noun
• nonculture
  noun
• preculture
  noun
• superculture
  noun
• cultureless
  adjective
• interculture
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• cultures
  plural

Participles

• culturing
  present
• cultured
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• culture
  simple
• cultures
  simple
• have cultured
  perfect
• has cultured
  perfect
• am culturing
  progressive
• are culturing
  progressive
• is culturing
  progressive
• have been culturing
  perfect progressive
• has been culturing
  perfect progressive

Past

• cultured
  simple
• had cultured
  perfect
• was culturing
  progressive
• were culturing
  progressive
• had been culturing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will culture
  simple
• will have cultured
  perfect
• will be culturing
  progressive
• will have been culturing
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of culture

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English: “tilling, place tilled,” from Anglo-French, Middle French, from Latin cultūra “cultivation, agriculture, tillage, care.” See cult, -ure

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Explanation

A culture is a specific group of people during a particular time — like the hippie culture of the 1960's. Culture can also imply exposure to the arts. Visit a museum if you are in need of a dose of culture. A useful thing to remember about culture is that it is closely related to cultivate, whose root meaning is "to till the soil." Even in Latin, the source language, cultura was used metaphorically (Cicero said philosophy was cultura animi, the "cultivation of the soul"), and in English it moved from the agricultural sense to training, development of language and literature, mental development through education, and finally the ideas, customs, and intellectual and artistic conditions of a society or group.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

culture cultures cultured culturing

Controlling the narrative about company culture is becoming increasingly important as more employees are comfortable sharing their layoff experiences on social media.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 6, 2026

Salon, one of the earliest general-interest news and culture sites on the internet, is shutting down, saying “our publishing model is no longer sustainable.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026

On the business front, she’s the president of the Mellon Foundation, the largest private funder of the arts culture and the humanities in the United States.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026

"Her appointment reflects our ambition to keep Balenciaga at the forefront of innovation, creativity and culture," Kering chief executive Luca de Meo said in a statement.

From Barron's ● Nov. 6, 2026

“He’d always say Bear Stearns could never be acquired by anyone because the culture of the firm could never be assimilated into anything else,” said Vinny.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

Spending a year as a deckhand is a family tradition for Salter, the creative director of Paspaley, a family business that was founded over 90 years ago and cultures rare pearls off Australia’s Kimberley coast.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2026

Deitch traces McGee’s primary influences to the city’s punk, skate, surf and graffiti cultures, as well as its hand-painted signs.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2026

By the mid-20th century, this inherited relationship with the macabre migrated from home altars and rural folk traditions into the pavement of urban youth cultures.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026

"It's about celebrating our cultures, bringing people into that fold and connecting," says the 32-year-old, who hosts Bristol Barbecue Family and The Aux Social.

From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2026

What kind of cultures, societies and political structures would have emerged in a world where several different human species coexisted?

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

The researchers now plan to move beyond cultured cells and test the approach in animal models.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 4, 2026

When Chief Executive Michal Beressi Golomb first showed off an early batch of cultured cocoa-bean chocolate bars made by her startup Celleste, she didn’t have enough for investors to taste.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026

By analyzing human and mouse fat samples, studying cultured fat cells, and conducting experiments in genetically modified mice, the scientists identified another mechanism linking this protein to energy expenditure.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 24, 2026

To investigate potential harm, the researchers exposed cultured human blood cells to sucralose-6-acetate and examined indicators of genetic damage.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 14, 2026

Without any one of those contributions, he said, the cultured cells wouldn’t exist, and neither would any money resulting from their sale.

From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot

There, he spent his days culturing cells and running experiments in a Minneapolis Veterans Affairs laboratory until 2016, when he left GeneSegues but stayed in Minnesota.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 25, 2026

Organoids are made by culturing a tissue sample in a solution that stimulates production of stem cells, the special cells within a body responsible for repair and growth.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 5, 2024

In contrast, high density culturing led to cells that expressed markers for surface ectoderm but not amniotic ectoderm.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 4, 2024

Suspended in water, the legs of the new robot are made of 3D-printed elements, flexible rubber, and skeletal muscle tissue grown by culturing rat cells in a lab.

From Science Magazine ● Jan. 26, 2024

As Gey flew from one lab to another, demonstrating his culturing techniques and helping to set up new laboratories, he always flew with tubes of Henrietta’s cells in his breast pocket.

From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot

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