counterculture

American  

[koun-ter-kuhl-cher] / ˈkaʊn tərˌkʌl tʃər /

noun

1. the culture and lifestyle of those people, especially among the young, who reject or oppose the dominant values and behavior of society.

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counterculture British  

/ ˈkaʊntəˌkʌltʃə /

noun

1. an alternative culture, deliberately at variance with the social norm

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counterculture Cultural  

1. A protest movement by American youth that arose in the late 1960s and faded during the late 1970s. According to some, young people in the United States were forming a culture of their own, opposed to the culture of Middle America. (See hippies and Woodstock.)

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Other Word Forms

• countercultural
  adjective
• counterculturalist
  noun
• counterculturist
  noun

Etymology

Origin of counterculture

First recorded in 1965–70; counter- + culture

Explanation

A group of people who do and believe things outside of what society considers normal or typical can be called a counterculture. A counterculture might organize itself around opposition to war or unusual ideas about raising children, for example. A counterculture is at odds with, and sometimes in direct opposition to, the prevailing norms — this was the case at the beginning of the anti-war "hippie" counterculture that formed in the 1960s as a protest against US involvement in the Vietnam War. The term first emerged around this time in Theodore Roszak's 1969 book "The Making of a Counter Culture."

Example Sentences

Brand’s centrality to Silicon Valley history was cemented, in 2006, with the publication of Fred Turner’s “From Counterculture to Cyberculture.”

From The New Yorker • Nov. 16, 2018

But, based on her pallid memoir, “Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook,” a writer is not one of them.

From Washington Post • Sep. 7, 2017

Scholars have documented the role of utopian ideals in the rise of the internet, notably in the 2008 book “From Counterculture to Cyberculture” by Fred Turner, a Stanford professor.

From New York Times • May 31, 2017

May 15: Counterculture icon Wavy Gravy is 79.

From Washington Times • May 5, 2015

Counterculture might not have been born with Jack Kerouac, but it certainly looks back to him as the point when being jobless, directionless and homeless became aspirational, at least ideologically.

From Salon • Apr. 20, 2014