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.
Of the $1 billion in funds, 40% will be for education, 40% will support healthcare initiatives, 10% will support agriculture initiatives, and 10% will support digital initiatives such as expanding language data for AI tools.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026
Crude oil prices now trade at over $100 a barrel, and the cost of a gallon in the U.S. for diesel—used in heavy transportation, agriculture and construction—hit a record high this week.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
The escalating attacks on railways come after months of strikes on Black Sea shipping and alongside attacks on warehouses, agriculture, transport hubs and logistics centres around Kyiv and across the country.
From Barron's ● Sep. 14, 2026
The outbreak has hit the agriculture sector hard and some farmers fear it will have a lasting impact.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
One is that agriculture in much of the Old World came to involve broadcast seeding and monoculture fields, and eventually plowing.
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.
