cultivated
Americanadjective
-
prepared and used for raising crops; tilled.
cultivated land.
-
produced or improved by cultivation, as a plant.
-
educated; refined; cultured.
cultivated tastes.
adjective
-
cultured, refined, or educated
-
-
subjected to tillage or cultivation
-
tilled and broken up
-
-
(of plants) specially bred or improved by cultivation
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of cultivated
Explanation
The adjective cultivated is used to describe someone who is polite and civilized. The cultivated people at the party would be very offended by crude behavior. Someone who's cultivated is knowledgeable or at least familiar with the arts, current events, history. He or she probably has traveled widely, or at least has read about other people and places. In other words, a cultivated person is a citizen of the world. As it applies to farming, cultivated soil is tilled, or churned, to prepare it for planting.
Vocabulary lists containing cultivated
"The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Persepolis
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
100 SAT words Beginning with "C"
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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.
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
China’s response so far shows an awareness that its behavior is being watched by the many other nations where Beijing has cultivated clout.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 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
Her aesthetics were deliberately cultivated, another calculated move from a shrewd entrepreneur who understood showbusiness as well as she understood people.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
Such size differences in other plants go back to the very beginnings of agriculture, when cultivated peas evolved through human selection to be 10 times heavier than wild peas.
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.
