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.
It was this same practicality that pushed her to get a job at the Inner City Cultural Center, a multicultural theater company born in the wake of the Watts Uprising.
From Los Angeles Times • May 7, 2026
That convention was also where Jackson forever secured his place within the party’s center with his rousing speech urging its old guard to embrace a broader multicultural spectrum, including the queer community.
From Salon • Feb. 22, 2026
“There are so many ways to ease the grief for the Jewish community in Bondi, without having a tin ear for the rest of multicultural Australia.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 11, 2026
Thaipusam is marked with particular zest in multicultural Malaysia, a Muslim-majority nation where ethnic Indians make up about seven percent of the 34 million population.
From Barron's • Feb. 1, 2026
The United States has always been a multicultural nation.
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.
