acculturation

American  

[uh-kuhl-chuh-rey-shuhn] / əˌkʌl tʃəˈreɪ ʃən /

noun

1. the process of sharing and learning the cultural traits or social patterns of another group.

   Acculturation of immigrants has contributed to the rich cultural diversity of the city.

2. the result of this process.

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acculturation Cultural  

1. The learning of the ideas, values, conventions, and behavior that characterize a social group. (See socialization.) Acculturation is also used to describe the results of contact between two or more different cultures; a new, composite culture emerges, in which some existing cultural features are combined, some are lost, and new features are generated. Usually one culture is dominant (as in the case of colonization).

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Other Word Forms

• acculturational adjective

Etymology

Origin of acculturation

An Americanism dating back to 1875–80; ac- + culture + -ation

Compare meaning

How does acculturation compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• enculturation vs. acculturation

Example Sentences

Without discounting the harshness of that imposed acculturation, he thanked what it gained him rather than resenting the means.

From The Wall Street Journal

They sought to accelerate the acculturation and assimilation of the many immigrants into one people, which, as the Massachusetts political and literary figure Fisher Ames pointed out, meant, “to use the modern jargon, nationalized.”

From The Wall Street Journal

Since then, the attorneys attempted to show, tribes had undergone an “acculturation” that meant that the importance of salmon to modern Northwest Indians had greatly diminished.

From Seattle Times

To look for these unique effects, the researchers compared the mothers' discrimination and acculturation stress to the strength of their infants' brain circuits, as measured with MRI scans.

From Science Daily

In recent years, studies have also revealed that discrimination and acculturation -- or the changes that occur due to migration and the subsequent balancing of multiple, different cultures -- can affect the adult brain.

From Science Daily