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
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.
Researchers from Nanjing Agricultural University and the University of Connecticut, publishing in Horticulture Research, explored this possibility using woodland strawberries.
From Science Daily • May 5, 2026
Horticulture student Roger Aylett founded Aylett Nurseries in St Albans, Hertfordshire, in April 1955, when "there was nothing here except a green field".
From BBC • Apr. 27, 2025
Official surveys from the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board recently found the amount of wheat planted is 9% down, the lowest for 20 years.
From BBC • Aug. 8, 2024
Horticulture workshop for habitat gardening, 10 a.m. to noon at Descanso Gardens, 1418 Descanso Drive in La Cañada Flintridge.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 1, 2023
Millet arranged to borrow tropical plants and trees from the Horticulture Building and have them moved to the lakeshore.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
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.
