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When did the word culture start referring to customs, not just farming?

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culture

American  

[kuhl-cher] / ˈkʌl tʃər /

noun

cultures plural

1. the quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits, etc.

2. that which is excellent in the arts, manners, etc.

3. a particular form or stage of civilization, as that of a certain nation or period.

   Greek culture.

4. development or improvement of the mind by education or training.

5. the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular group of people, as a social, ethnic, professional, or age group (usually used in combination).

   the youth culture; the drug culture.

6. the shared beliefs, behaviors, or social environment connected with a particular aspect of society.

   the rape culture on campus; the culture of poverty; a culture of celebrity worship.

7. the values, typical practices, and goals of a business or other organization, especially a large corporation.

   Their corporate culture frowns on avoiding risk.

8. Anthropology. the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another.

9. Biology.

   1. the cultivation of microorganisms, as bacteria, or of tissues, for scientific study, medicinal use, etc.

   2. the product or growth resulting from such cultivation.

10. the act or practice of cultivating the soil; tillage.

11. the raising of plants or animals, especially with a view to their improvement.

12. the product or growth resulting from such cultivation.

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verb (used with object)

cultures, present (3rd person singular) cultured, past participle, past culturing present participle

1. to subject to culture; cultivate.

2. Biology.

   1. to grow (microorganisms, tissues, etc.) in or on a controlled or defined medium.

   2. to introduce (living material) into a culture medium.

culture British  

/ ˈkʌltʃə /

noun

1. the total of the inherited ideas, beliefs, values, and knowledge, which constitute the shared bases of social action

2. the total range of activities and ideas of a group of people with shared traditions, which are transmitted and reinforced by members of the group

   the Mayan culture

3. a particular civilization at a particular period

4. the artistic and social pursuits, expression, and tastes valued by a society or class, as in the arts, manners, dress, etc

5. the enlightenment or refinement resulting from these pursuits

6. the attitudes, feelings, values, and behaviour that characterize and inform society as a whole or any social group within it

   yob culture

7. the cultivation of plants, esp by scientific methods designed to improve stock or to produce new ones

8. stockbreeding the rearing and breeding of animals, esp with a view to improving the strain

9. the act or practice of tilling or cultivating the soil

10. biology

    1. the experimental growth of microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi, in a nutrient substance (culture medium), usually under controlled conditions See also culture medium

    2. a group of microorganisms grown in this way

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verb

1. to cultivate (plants or animals)

2. to grow (microorganisms) in a culture medium

culture Scientific  

/ kŭl′chər /

1. A growth of microorganisms, viruses, or tissue cells in a specially prepared nutrient medium under supervised conditions.

2. The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought. Culture is learned and shared within social groups and is transmitted by nongenetic means.

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1. To grow microorganisms, viruses, or tissue cells in a nutrient medium.

culture Cultural  

1. The sum of attitudes, customs, and beliefs that distinguishes one group of people from another. Culture is transmitted, through language, material objects, ritual, institutions, and art, from one generation to the next.

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Usage

What does culture mean? Culture is a collection of behaviors and beliefs associated with a particular group, as in Ming adores Mexican culture, especially Día de Muertos, or Day of the Dead. Culture is also the quality of a person or group of people that comes from appreciating excellence in the arts, fashion, manners, and other characteristics of a society, as in A person of culture, Damon frequently attends the symphony and theater. To culture someone is to expose them to culture, particularly to one that is not their own. In biology and agriculture, a culture is a specific, enclosed group of organisms, such as a cell culture or a group of plants or animals that are separated from the rest. Related to this sense, to culture means to grow such a group of organisms. Example: The culture at my office is one of respect and interest in each others’ projects.

Synonym Usage

See education.

Discover More

Culture also refers to refined music, art, and literature; one who is well versed in these subjects is considered “cultured.”

Anthropologists consider that the requirements for culture (language use, tool making, and conscious regulation of sex) are essential features that distinguish humans from other animals.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• anticulture
  noun
• culturist
  noun
• interculture
  noun
• multiculture
  noun
• nonculture
  noun
• preculture
  noun
• superculture
  noun
• cultureless
  adjective
• interculture
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• cultures
  plural

Participles

• culturing
  present
• cultured
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• culture
  simple
• cultures
  simple
• have cultured
  perfect
• has cultured
  perfect
• am culturing
  progressive
• are culturing
  progressive
• is culturing
  progressive
• have been culturing
  perfect progressive
• has been culturing
  perfect progressive

Past

• cultured
  simple
• had cultured
  perfect
• was culturing
  progressive
• were culturing
  progressive
• had been culturing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will culture
  simple
• will have cultured
  perfect
• will be culturing
  progressive
• will have been culturing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of culture

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English: “tilling, place tilled,” from Anglo-French, Middle French, from Latin cultūra “cultivation, agriculture, tillage, care.” See cult, -ure

Explanation

A culture is a specific group of people during a particular time — like the hippie culture of the 1960's. Culture can also imply exposure to the arts. Visit a museum if you are in need of a dose of culture. A useful thing to remember about culture is that it is closely related to cultivate, whose root meaning is "to till the soil." Even in Latin, the source language, cultura was used metaphorically (Cicero said philosophy was cultura animi, the "cultivation of the soul"), and in English it moved from the agricultural sense to training, development of language and literature, mental development through education, and finally the ideas, customs, and intellectual and artistic conditions of a society or group.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

culture cultures cultured culturing

The Smithsonian Institution, founded nearly two centuries ago, is a Washington mainstay whose 21 museums are largely dedicated to US history and culture, as well as art.

From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026

"As cities expand and food waste increases, humans and raccoons cross paths more often," said Dr Idil Galip, digital culture researcher at the University of Amsterdam.

From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026

“This is a theater of democracy that believes that the culture belongs to everybody,” he said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026

Attending Marquette marked his first time traveling overseas and his first experience with American culture.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026

The oven was probably already heating—that was something the house spirit took care of—so all Anya had to do was break off a piece of the dough to save a yeast culture for next week.

From Anya and the Dragon by Sofiya Pasternack

Our expectation of fairness and our disdain for cheaters, expressed in laws across human cultures, can be traced to social primates—evidence that our sense of justice has deep evolutionary foundations.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026

“I think there is a lot of attention to how different cultures have taken America’s pastime and created experiences around it that are different than we have here,” Freedman said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026

"It's not neglect... they're seeing different cultures, hearing different languages, they're eating different foods."

From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026

Across different cultures, they have been viewed as everything from mystical guides that help lost travelers find their way home to ominous creatures associated with bad luck.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 11, 2026

Preferences for certain sounds is partly cultural; that's one of the reasons why the traditional musics of various cultures can sound so different from each other.

From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones

For much of the opening half they were like a cultured fighter, boxing the ears off an over-matched rival, bamboozling their punchbag with their movement before what felt like an inevitable knockout.

From BBC ● Jun. 20, 2026

They now plan to expand the approach beyond cultured cells and apply it to living systems.

From Science Daily ● May 21, 2026

"They took bees back and growed them in the lab, they cultured all the pollen, the wax, and many, many things."

From Barron's ● May 19, 2026

The French brasserie with paper-thin radishes, good cultured butter and a pinch of flaky salt.

From Salon ● Feb. 18, 2026

Judging from Dr. Bright's accounts, the men of London dressed in splendid clothing, all ornamented and embroidered, and spoke in a civil and cultured manner.

From "The Shakespeare Stealer" by Gary L. Blackwood

There, he spent his days culturing cells and running experiments in a Minneapolis Veterans Affairs laboratory until 2016, when he left GeneSegues but stayed in Minnesota.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 25, 2026

Since culturing skin microbiota in the lab is challenging, researchers have traditionally used metagenomic analysis to study them -- an approach that involves extracting the combined genome of all bacteria in a community.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 20, 2024

Suspended in water, the legs of the new robot are made of 3D-printed elements, flexible rubber, and skeletal muscle tissue grown by culturing rat cells in a lab.

From Science Magazine ● Jan. 26, 2024

These findings help to better understand cell differentiation and could thus be a basis for future developments in the field of targeted culturing of tissue in cell replacement therapies.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2023

And soon, HeLa cells weren’t the only ones being bought and sold for research—with media and equipment standardization, culturing became easier, and researchers began growing cells of all kinds.

From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot

Related Words

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