agriculture
Americannoun
-
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
- agricultural adjective
- agriculturally adverb
- agriculturist noun
- preagricultural adjective
- preagriculture noun
- semiagricultural adjective
- unagricultural adjective
- unagriculturally adverb
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.
Climate change is wreaking havoc on agriculture, bringing stronger storms, longer droughts, erratic rainfall and rising temperatures.
From Salon • Apr. 11, 2026
Parliamentarians want more money for critical sectors including agriculture.
From Barron's • Apr. 9, 2026
The retail, agriculture and public-administration categories noted declines.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 6, 2026
Artificial intelligence and data driven tools now guide many aspects of agriculture and food distribution.
From Science Daily • Apr. 5, 2026
In contrast, many islands with intensive agriculture attained population densities exceeding 120 per square mile.
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.
