Library / English Dictionary

CULTURE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The raising of plants or animals

Example:

the culture of oysters

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("culture" is a kind of...):

cultivation ((agriculture) production of food by preparing the land to grow crops (especially on a large scale))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "culture"):

cranberry culture (the cultivation of cranberries)

monoculture (the cultivation of a single crop (on a farm or area or country))

tillage (the cultivation of soil for raising crops)

viniculture; viticulture (the cultivation of grapes and grape vines; grape growing)

Derivation:

cultural (relating to the raising of plants or animals)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(biology) the growing of microorganisms in a nutrient medium (such as gelatin or agar)

Example:

the culture of cells in a Petri dish

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("culture" is a kind of...):

development; growing; growth; maturation; ontogenesis; ontogeny ((biology) the process of an individual organism growing organically; a purely biological unfolding of events involved in an organism changing gradually from a simple to a more complex level)

Domain category:

biological science; biology (the science that studies living organisms)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "culture"):

starter (a culture containing yeast or bacteria that is used to start the process of fermentation or souring in making butter or cheese or dough)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The tastes in art and manners that are favored by a social group

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("culture" is a kind of...):

appreciation; discernment; perceptiveness; taste (delicate discrimination (especially of aesthetic values))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "culture"):

counterculture (a culture with lifestyles and values opposed to those of the established culture)

mass culture (the culture that is widely disseminated via the mass media)

letters (the literary culture)

Derivation:

acculturate (assimilate culturally)

cultural (denoting or deriving from or distinctive of the ways of living built up by a group of people)

cultural (of or relating to the arts and manners that a group favors)

Sense 4

Meaning:

All the knowledge and values shared by a society

Synonyms:

acculturation; culture

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("culture" is a kind of...):

cognitive content; content; mental object (the sum or range of what has been perceived, discovered, or learned)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "culture"):

meme (a cultural unit (an idea or value or pattern of behavior) that is passed from one person to another by non-genetic means (as by imitation))

Derivation:

acculturate (assimilate culturally)

cultural (denoting or deriving from or distinctive of the ways of living built up by a group of people)

cultural (of or relating to the shared knowledge and values of a society)

Sense 5

Meaning:

The attitudes and behavior that are characteristic of a particular social group or organization

Example:

the reason that the agency is doomed to inaction has something to do with the FBI culture

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("culture" is a kind of...):

attitude; mental attitude (a complex mental state involving beliefs and feelings and values and dispositions to act in certain ways)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "culture"):

mosaic culture (a highly diverse culture)

Kalashnikov culture (the attitudes and behavior in a social group that resolves political disputes by force of arms)

cyberculture (the culture that emerges from the use of computers for communication and entertainment and business)

Sense 6

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 ("culture" is a kind of...):

society (an extended social group having a distinctive cultural and economic organization)

Meronyms (parts of "culture"):

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 "culture"):

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)

Derivation:

acculturate (assimilate culturally)

Sense 7

Meaning:

A highly developed state of perfection; having a flawless or impeccable quality

Example:

almost an inspiration which gives to all work that finish which is almost art

Synonyms:

cultivation; culture; finish; polish; refinement

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("culture" is a kind of...):

flawlessness; ne plus ultra; perfection (the state of being without a flaw or defect)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Grow in a special preparation

Example:

the biologist grows microorganisms

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "culture" is one way to...):

grow (cause to grow or develop)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

In cell culture experiments they found that one of the antibodies enhanced the ability of neutrophils to ingest and kill bacteria.

(Scientists describe potential antibody approach for treating multidrug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae, National Institutes of Health)

The working hypothesis of the researchers was based on recent studies in yeasts and cell cultures generated by some international groups.

(A new pharmacological therapy against a severe kind of deficiency in Coenzyme Q10, University of Granada)

Cultured human brain cells infected with this fungus also had higher survival rates when they were altered to produce more beta-amyloid.

(Alzheimer’s protein may have natural antibiotic role, NIH)

After seven days, the researchers found that ZIKV had replicated in certain glioblastoma cells and prevented them from multiplying, while the ordinary neural tissue cultures remained largely uninfected.

(Zika virus selectively infects and kills glioblastoma cells in mice, National Institutes of Health)

They also performed further assays to test the ability of these 10 polymers to support chondrocyte proliferation to produce cartilage matrix in long-term cultures.

(Scientists design a new hydrogel that helps regenerate cartilage, University of Granada)

There is a character, a little indigenous boy, who represents the Amazonian culture.

(Brazilian professor creates mobile game that combines fun with mathematics, Agência Brasil)

And are those same neural processes universal, or do they vary across cultures?

(Understanding how the brain makes sense of sound, National Science Foundation)

This detailed description of the genes that are present or missing should facilitate attempts to culture the organism, a critical milestone in Pneumocystis research.

(Researchers sequence genome of a fungus that causes life-threatening pneumonia, NIH)

Longo and his team also examined pancreatic cell cultures from human donors and found that, in cells from type 1 diabetes patients, fasting also increased expression of the Ngn3 protein and accelerated insulin production.

(Fasting-Mimicking Diet May Reverse Diabetes, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The Datura genus, which includes stramonium, encompasses a number of plant species that have featured heavily in the traditional medicine and popular culture of countries such as Mexico and Spain.

(Scientists examine the ethnobotanical uses of stramonium, University of Granada)