inculcate
Americanverb (used with object)
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inculcates,
present (3rd person singular)
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inculcated,
past participle, past
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inculcating
present participle
-
to implant by repeated statement or admonition; teach persistently and earnestly (usually followed by upon orin ).
to inculcate virtue in the young.
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to cause or influence (someone) to accept an idea or feeling (usually followed bywith ).
Socrates inculcated his pupils with the love of truth.
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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inculcatesimple
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inculcatessimple
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have inculcatedperfect
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has inculcatedperfect
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am inculcatingprogressive
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are inculcatingprogressive
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is inculcatingprogressive
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have been inculcatingperfect progressive
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has been inculcatingperfect progressive
Past
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inculcatedsimple
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had inculcatedperfect
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was inculcatingprogressive
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were inculcatingprogressive
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had been inculcatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of inculcate
First recorded in 1540–50; from Latin inculcātus, past participle of inculcāre “to trample, impress, stuff in,” equivalent to in- “in” + culc- (variant, in noninitial position, of calc-, stem of calx “heel”) + -ātus past participle suffix; see in- 2, -ate 1
Explanation
To inculcate is to teach through frequent instruction. If you repeatedly tell your brother how important it is to be responsible, then you’re trying to inculcate in him a sense of responsibility. The word inculcate traces back to the Latin word inculcare, meaning “to force upon or to stamp in.” If anyone has even tried to inculcate you with something, it may seem as if something is being stamped into your brain — over and over and over. A key thing to remember about this word is repetition: something, such as a value or a belief, is instilled in the brain by the persistent restating of its importance.
Vocabulary lists containing inculcate
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Brave New World
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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.
See Examples For:
To tell one’s beads regularly requires a measure of the discipline it is meant to inculcate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 8, 2026
"I think you need to try and inculcate people into an understanding of the structures of governance, how you can engage in those structures."
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2025
As Sagan wrote in his 1985 novel Contact, an awareness of extraterrestrial life would serve to inculcate the “power of the planetary perspective.”
From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2023
It can be more difficult for employers to inculcate values and for workers to learn from one another.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 27, 2023
Rut wordless conditioning is crude and wholesale; cannot bring home the finer distinctions, cannot inculcate the more complex courses of behaviour.
From "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley
This year brought a late, travel-related cancellation from the gifted pianist Utsav Lal, who inculcates the Indian classical tradition into his accompaniment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 17, 2025
Athletic contests are a schoolhouse of democracy that inculcates the habits of civic engagement necessary for a free people to thrive.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 22, 2024
Despite being physically gone, Numa continues to narrate the course of the film, a deliberate storytelling choice by Bayona that inculcates the theme of consumption as a type of communion.
From Salon ● Jan. 23, 2024
“One of the things about recovery that I think people sometimes overlook is the fact that it inculcates certain values. Be honest. Be accountable. Help other people. Apologize when you’re wrong.”
From New York Times ● Feb. 18, 2020
It deserves to be placed at the head of all the others, for it inculcates the cardinal virtue of childhood—obedience.
From The Moral Instruction of Children by Adler, Felix
It suggests a household that lacks rules, or plays by rules other than the ones most of us have been inculcated with.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2025
At a young age, we are inculcated by our elders — those close to us as well as friends who became aunties, uncles and cousins by polite acclamation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 24, 2023
For public defenders dedicated to the work, or coming into the field with the hypercompetitive spirit inculcated by some law schools, such setbacks can be devastating.
From Slate ● Jan. 4, 2023
Mallory Mills, 15, who roams the sidelines at football games as Toby the Turkey, Cuero High’s colorful mascot, said growing up in town inculcated a reverence for the bird.
From New York Times ● Nov. 23, 2022
Unlike Charles, she was not careful to put things back where she got them; the freethinking atmosphere at Maer had not inculcated order into her as the strict atmosphere at the Mount had into Charles.
From "Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith" by Deborah Heiligman
Authorities also sent Tibetan children to state-run boarding schools at ever-younger ages, educating them predominantly in Mandarin and inculcating Chinese culture.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 12, 2026
It’s an irresistible ditty that starts by contrasting a text-to-speech voice inculcating on Isaac Newton with Pearce and musician Sharron Kraus singing about the sun’s mass.
From Scientific American ● May 27, 2022
It could spark useful conversations in those churches, synagogues and mosques that are concerned with inculcating and living out their common values in the world as it is.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 26, 2018
If the republic depended on civic virtue, women played a crucial public function by inculcating virtue in their sons and husbands.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018
A larger importance will be given, in methods of education at home, to inculcating and enforcing obedience to laws and regulations.
From Insanity Its Causes and Prevention by Stearns, Henry Putnam
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.
