civilization.
An organized culture encompassing many communities, often on the scale of a nation or a people; a stage or system of social, political, or technical development.
Meaning & usage
An organized culture encompassing many communities, often on the scale of a nation or a people; a stage or system of social, political, or technical development.
the Aztec civilization
Western civilization
Human society, particularly civil society.
A hermit doesn't much care for civilization.
I'm glad to be back in civilization after a day with that rowdy family.
The act or process of civilizing or becoming civilized.
The teacher's civilization of the child was no easy task.
The state or quality of being civilized.
He was a man of great civilization.
The act of rendering a criminal process civil.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱey-der. Proto-Italic *keiwis Latin ceivis Latin cīvis Proto-Indo-European *-elis Proto-Italic *-elis Latin -ilis Latin -īlis Latin cīvīlislbor. French civil Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō)bor. Late Latin -izārebor. Old French -iser French -iser French civiliser Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin -ātiōlbor. Old French -ation Middle French -ation French -ation French civilisationbor. English civilization Borrowed from French civilisation, equivalent to civilize + -ation or civil + -ization.
Collectively, those people and places of the world considered to have a high standard of behavior and / or a high level of development. Commonly subjectively used by people of one society to exclusively refer to their society, or their elite sub-group, or a few associated societies, implying all others, in time or geography or status, as something less than civilised, as savages or barbarians. (Compare refinement, elitism, civilised society, the Civilised World.
Some of the tourists in the upcountry might have embarrassed themselves if they'd been capable of having any shame, whining that they couldn't wait to get back to civilization.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱey-der. Proto-Italic *keiwis Latin ceivis Latin cīvis Proto-Indo-European *-elis Proto-Italic *-elis Latin -ilis Latin -īlis Latin cīvīlislbor. French civil Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō)bor. Late Latin -izārebor. Old French -iser French -iser French civiliser Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin -ātiōlbor. Old French -ation Middle French -ation French -ation French civilisationbor. English civilization Borrowed from French civilisation, equivalent to civilize + -ation or civil + -ization.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.