cultural capital

American  

[kuhl-cher-uhl kap-i-tl] / ˈkʌl tʃər əl ˈkæp ɪ tl /

noun

1. Sociology. the skills, education, norms, and behaviors acquired by members of a social group that can give them economic and other advantages.

   The accumulation of cultural capital is one route to upward mobility.

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Etymology

Origin of cultural capital

First recorded in 1975–80

Compare meaning

How does cultural-capital compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• social capital vs. cultural capital

Example Sentences

For Steinberg, the campaign has grown beyond just wanting to see movies again in a favorite venue and into something about who truly owns the cultural capital of the city.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 6, 2026

Museum attendance in Moscow, which competes with Saint Petersburg as Russia's cultural capital, jumped 30 percent in 2025, according to deputy mayor Natalya Sergunina.

From Barron's • Feb. 18, 2026

Because even the robber barons were not that bad; at least they endowed some libraries and foundations and fellowships and had some idea of wanting to pretend to some sort of cultural capital.

From Salon • Apr. 4, 2025

A lot of that, what I call cultural capital, was built outside the court by these networks.

From Slate • Nov. 21, 2023

They say he intends to remake the Austrian town of Linz into an empyrean city, the cultural capital of the world.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr