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
Derived 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.
He was referring to a time when a surge in interest rates, a collapse in export markets and widespread droughts dealt a devastating blow to American agriculture.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 2, 2026
The WMO hopes advance warning will guide preparedness, especially in climate-sensitive sectors like agriculture, water management, energy and health.
From Barron's • Jun. 2, 2026
Notably, many of the earlier Neolithic Dutch samples from further north – such as the Swifterbant culture, well-known for maintaining a hunter-gatherer economy alongside some adoption of agriculture – carried close to 100% hunter-gatherer ancestry.
From Science Daily • May 30, 2026
Is agriculture your favorite job among the six industries you’ve worked in?
From The Wall Street Journal • May 27, 2026
Chapter 4 sketches how food production—that is, the growing of food by agriculture or herding, instead of the hunting and gathering of wild foods—ultimately led to the immediate factors permitting Pizarro’s triumph.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
