cultivated
Americanadjective
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prepared and used for raising crops; tilled.
cultivated land.
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produced or improved by cultivation, as a plant.
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educated; refined; cultured.
cultivated tastes.
adjective
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cultured, refined, or educated
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subjected to tillage or cultivation
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tilled and broken up
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(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
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Persepolis
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100 SAT words Beginning with "C"
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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.
Kinjo says that reefs flanking his seaside farm consist entirely of corals he cultivated, with their natural peers "no longer able to keep up with a tremendous increase in stress" in the anthropogenically polluted ocean.
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
Renowned for her signature wardrobe of high-shoulder suits, pussy-bow blouses, and her iconic handbag, Thatcher cultivated an image that sought to project a sense of authority and purpose.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
Throughout his career, Graham cultivated a reputation for his focus on issues like immigration reform, national security and criminal justice, including reaching across the aisle for more bipartisanship politics in his earlier years in office.
From Salon ● Jul. 12, 2026
Among legacy networks, NBC was already the best match for Netflix—less stuffy than CBS News, less adventurous and jazzy than ABC News, at least by the images the three news divisions cultivated in their heyday.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
Shriveled and fragile, but holding on to that unnatural perfection cultivated in Snow’s greenhouse.
From "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins
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.
