multicultural
Americanadjective
adjective
Etymology
Origin of multicultural
Explanation
Multicultural things are made up of or include more than one ethnic group or culture. Your multicultural food fair might include dishes from Chile, Syria, Sudan, and France. The world is multicultural, and societies in most countries are multicultural. We all need to learn about people whose religions, skin color, histories, and cultures are completely different from ours — you can get this from multicultural education, like a world history class that includes multicultural perspectives. When the word multicultural was first used in the mid-twentieth century, it often referred to Canada. Multi- means "many," and cultural comes from the Latin cultura, "cultivating."
Vocabulary lists containing multicultural
The United States
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The Modern Period, c. 1750 to c. 1914
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"The Latehomecomer" by Kao Kalia Yang
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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.
The event kicked off with multicultural music by Native American, Korean and West African drum ensembles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2026
The film’s writer-director, Josef Kubota Wladyka, who is half Japanese and half Polish, gives a fond salute to the multicultural appeal of the dance floor that brings together all sorts of people.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
It was a messy and indecisive conflict, but its importance as a formative event in Canada’s multilingual, multicultural national identity was enormous.
From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2026
Authorities in the multicultural country insist that this is necessary to preserve racial and social harmony.
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
This aside, however, there are pressing 21st century learning issues that demand multicultural teaching material.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
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.
