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CIVILIZATION
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The quality of excellence in thought and manners and taste
Example:
he is remembered for his generosity and civilization
Synonyms:
civilisation; civilization; refinement
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("civilization" is a kind of...):
excellence (the quality of excelling; possessing good qualities in high degree)
Derivation:
civilize (teach or refine to be discriminative in taste or judgment)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A society in an advanced state of social development (e.g., with complex legal and political and religious organizations)
Example:
the people slowly progressed from barbarism to civilization
Synonyms:
civilisation; civilization
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Hypernyms ("civilization" is a kind of...):
society (an extended social group having a distinctive cultural and economic organization)
Domain category:
government; political science; politics (the study of government of states and other political units)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "civilization"):
Islam; Muslimism (the civilization of Muslims collectively which is governed by the Muslim religion)
Derivation:
civilize (raise from a barbaric to a civilized state)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A particular society at a particular time and place
Example:
early Mayan civilization
Synonyms:
civilisation; civilization; culture
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Hypernyms ("civilization" is a kind of...):
society (an extended social group having a distinctive cultural and economic organization)
Meronyms (parts of "civilization"):
subculture (a social group within a national culture that has distinctive patterns of behavior and beliefs)
Domain category:
archaeology; archeology (the branch of anthropology that studies prehistoric people and their cultures)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "civilization"):
Aegean civilisation; Aegean civilization; Aegean culture (the prehistoric civilization on the islands in the Aegean sea and the surrounding countries)
Helladic civilisation; Helladic civilization; Helladic culture (the bronze-age culture of mainland Greece that flourished 2500-1100 BC)
Indus civilization (the bronze-age culture of the Indus valley that flourished from about 2600-1750 BC)
Minoan civilisation; Minoan civilization; Minoan culture (the bronze-age culture of Crete that flourished 3000-1100 BC)
Mycenaean civilisation; Mycenaean civilization; Mycenaean culture (the late bronze-age culture of Mycenae that flourished 1400-1100 BC)
Paleo-American culture; Paleo-Amerind culture; Paleo-Indian culture (the prehistoric culture of the earliest human inhabitants of North America and South America)
Western civilization; Western culture (the modern culture of western Europe and North America)
Sense 4
Meaning:
The social process whereby societies achieve an advanced stage of development and organization
Synonyms:
civilisation; civilization
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural processes
Hypernyms ("civilization" is a kind of...):
social process (a process involved in the formation of groups of persons)
Context examples:
And, finally, I am convinced that he is the perfect type of the primitive man, born a thousand years or generations too late and an anachronism in this culminating century of civilization.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
He had made his name as the most lewd and bloodthirsty tyrant that had ever governed any country with a pretence to civilization.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
This is a first-class, up-to-date burgling kit, with nickel-plated jemmy, diamond-tipped glass-cutter, adaptable keys, and every modern improvement which the march of civilization demands.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Collapse of the Maya civilization that occurred between 800 and 900 A.D.. Symptoms of the collapse included abandonment of the countryside and ceremonial centers as well as a cessation of cultural activities.
(Classic Collapse, NOAA Paleoclimate Glossary)
Speculations have included the idea that the star swallowed a planet that it is unstable, and a more imaginative theory involves a giant contraption or megastructure built by an advanced civilization, which could be harvesting energy from the star and causing its brightness to decrease.
(Mysterious Dimming of Tabby's Star May Be Caused by Dust, NASA)
Scientists have sketched out one of the greatest baby booms in North American history, a centuries-long growth blip among southwestern Native Americans between 500 and 1300 A.D. It was a time when the early features of civilization—including farming and food storage—had matured to a level where birth rates likely exceeded the highest in the world today.
(Scientists chart a baby boom in southwestern Native Americans from 500 to 1300 A.D., NSF)
"We've had this western conceit that complex civilizations can't flourish in the tropics, that the tropics are where civilizations go to die," Canuto told National Geographic.
(Hidden Mayan Civilization Revealed in Guatemala Jungle, VOA)
Possible explanations for FRBs range from outbursts from rotating neutron stars with extremely strong magnetic fields, to more speculative ideas that they are directed energy sources used by extraterrestrial civilizations to power spacecraft.
(Mysterious Radio Signals Detected from Deep Space, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
The effect of civilization is to impose human law upon environment until it becomes machine-like in its regularity.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
"The flesh-pots of civilization," groaned Challenger.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
