traditional knowledge

American  

[truh-dish-uh-nuhl nahl-ij] / trəˈdɪʃ ə nəl ˈnɑl ɪdʒ /

noun

1. skills, knowledge, and practices that are passed down through generations, rather than being taught through official means or formal education, and which are often associated with specific cultural identities.

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Example Sentences

Drawing on traditional knowledge and support from leading experts, the women prepare the biofertiliser using locally available raw materials.

From Barron's • Jun. 16, 2026

“China and the international community should respect traditional knowledge and local communities to make them ideal stewards to protect the Tibetan plateau.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 12, 2025

“Land back means giving the land back to its original people with no strings attached. Let them provide their traditional knowledge to heal the land, the environment.”

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 14, 2025

According to Armstrong, settler-colonial efforts to systematically separate Indigenous peoples from their land and suppress traditional knowledge have obscured the role humans played in shaping the landscape.

From Science Daily • Dec. 6, 2024

The writer visited Zuñi in October of the same season, and on describing this find to Mr. Frank H. Cushing, learned that the Zuñi Indians still preserved traditional knowledge of this device.

From A Study of Pueblo Architecture: Tusayan and Cibola Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1886-1887, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891, pages 3-228 by Nichols, Henry Hobart