cultivate
Americanverb (used with object)
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cultivates,
present (3rd person singular)
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cultivated,
past participle, past
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cultivating
present participle
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to prepare and work on (land) in order to raise crops; till.
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to use a cultivator on.
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to promote or improve the growth of (a plant, crop, etc.) by labor and attention.
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to produce by culture.
to cultivate a strain of bacteria.
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to develop or improve by education or training; train; refine.
to cultivate a singing voice.
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to promote the growth or development of (an art, science, etc.); foster.
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to devote oneself to (an art, science, etc.).
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to seek to promote or foster (friendship, love, etc.).
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to seek the acquaintance or friendship of (a person).
verb
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to till and prepare (land or soil) for the growth of crops
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to plant, tend, harvest, or improve (plants) by labour and skill
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to break up (land or soil) with a cultivator or hoe
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to improve or foster (the mind, body, etc) as by study, education, or labour
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to give special attention to
to cultivate a friendship
to cultivate a hobby
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to give or bring culture to (a person, society, etc); civilize
Usage
What does cultivate mean? When used literally, cultivate means to take steps to grow something or improve its growth, especially crops. When used figuratively, it means much the same thing, except that the thing being grown or improved is often an abstract thing, such as a business or a friendship. The literal sense of cultivate is most often used in the context of agriculture, but it can also refer to things being grown in a laboratory. Its figurative sense can apply to many different things, such as relationships, skills, and even cultures. Example: Farmers have cultivated a variety of crops in this region.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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overcultivateverb (used with object)
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precultivateverb (used with object)
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recultivateverb (used with object)
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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cultivatesimple
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cultivatessimple
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have cultivatedperfect
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has cultivatedperfect
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am cultivatingprogressive
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are cultivatingprogressive
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is cultivatingprogressive
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have been cultivatingperfect progressive
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has been cultivatingperfect progressive
Past
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cultivatedsimple
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had cultivatedperfect
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was cultivatingprogressive
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were cultivatingprogressive
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had been cultivatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of cultivate
First recorded in 1610–20; from Medieval Latin cultīvātus, past participle of cultīvāre “to till,” equivalent to cultīv(us) “tilled,” derivative of Latin colere “to inhabit, till” + -īvus -ive + -āre, infinitive suffix; cf. cult
Explanation
To cultivate is to nurture and help grow. Farmers cultivate crops, fundraising professionals cultivate donors, and celebrities cultivate their images. When you cultivate something, you work to make it better. Originally, the word referred only to crops that required tilling, but the meaning has widened. No matter what is being cultivated, the word implies a level of care that is reminiscent of gardening. Sometimes friendships come naturally and sometimes you have to cultivate them. To cultivate anything requires an attention to detail, an understanding of what is being cultivated, and a lot of patience.
Vocabulary lists containing cultivate
The Vernal Vocabulary of Spring
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The SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words, List 5
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List 7
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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.
See Examples For:
Being on site helps reporters cultivate sources and break news, which in turn helps inform those of us who don’t have access to the building.
From Slate ● Sep. 21, 2026
Bilal said faith in politics, government and corporations is not high among his peers, but he’s trying to grow a network of young people to cultivate and support future leaders.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
Moscow has tried to cultivate deeper ties with New Delhi, which has long been a loyal recipient of Russian oil and arms.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 5, 2026
Asgard archaea are notoriously challenging to cultivate away from their natural habitats.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 3, 2026
However, these early fruit and nut trees were still the easiest such crops to cultivate.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
The steady support these characters give to one another is the secret to the success of Lion’s hagwon, which cultivates a caring, low-pressure educational environment as opposed to the usual factory-line exam drilling.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026
What he cultivates instead is patience – the type of glacial cool it takes to seize a cosmic destiny.
From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2026
The Huntington cultivates them on-site and has distributed many to botanic gardens and zoos across the country.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
How he works with the White House - and the kind of relationship he cultivates with the president - could prove crucial for implementing his agenda.
From BBC ● Jan. 1, 2026
A leader must also tend his garden; he, too, plants seeds, and then watches, cultivates, and harvests the result.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
The irony, as the region stumbled into the ’80s, is that between its wealth and carefully cultivated isolation, Marin came to exemplify the ethos of conformist America: every man for himself.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
Whether a location was a garden, meadow, cultivated field or lawn explained differences in decomposition better than most of the soil characteristics the researchers measured.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 28, 2026
But dozens of families say they are being displaced from land they have cultivated for generations.
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
Then they discovered what their farmland—the farmland that their family had cultivated for nearly 200 years—would be used for: a 2.2-gigawatt hyperscale data center.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
Cane was probably first cultivated by humans on the island some five thousand years or more before the Greeks.
From "Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science" by Marc Aronson
And, while WSL managers say they appreciate the importance of cultivating homegrown talent, the reality of the job ensures it is not their first priority.
From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026
They then take their sweet time “fattening up” their marks, cultivating trust and gradually feeding them promises of bigger and better returns.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026
To do so means overcoming obstacles that are cataloged with a discouraging ease: The apprenticeships, the unpaid hours, the creation of a style, the cultivating of clients, the marketing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
Rather than simply cultivating conventional Spirulina, researchers are changing the conditions under which it grows to encourage production of specific compounds that are useful to humans.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 30, 2026
And he stays, cultivating me like a small inheritance of land where his future resides.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
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.
