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.
This is the belief that dense forests with nearly continuous tree canopies were Europe's natural landscape before humans began clearing land for agriculture and settlements.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 7, 2026
Its foods business—encompassing ingredients, sugar, agriculture and grocery—has traditionally been less favored by investors than the retail business.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2026
The UK and EU have agreed a draft deal on removing post-Brexit checks from food and agriculture exports, ahead of the UK-EU summit later this month.
From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026
Diesel is a crucial input to manufacturing, agriculture and transportation, though its direct impact on consumers is obscure compared with the effect of auto fuel.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2026
Sedentary villages based on cereals were already in existence before the rise of food production and predisposed those hunter-gatherers to agriculture and herding.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
