overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

culture.

The arts, customs, lifestyles, background, and habits that characterize humankind, or a particular society or nation.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈkʌlt͡ʃə/British, Received-Pronunciation, Southern, Standard[ˈkʰʌlt͡ʃə]British, Received-Pronunciation, Southern, Standard/ˈkʊlt͡ʃə/Northern-England[ˈkʰʊlt͡ʃə]Northern-England
  1. The arts, customs, lifestyles, background, and habits that characterize humankind, or a particular society or nation.

    countable · uncountable
  2. The beliefs, values, behaviour, and material objects that constitute a people's way of life.

    countable · uncountable
  3. The conventional conducts and ideologies of a community; the system comprising the accepted norms and values of a society.

    countable · uncountable
  4. Any knowledge passed from one generation to the next, not necessarily with respect to human beings.

    countable · uncountable
  5. Cultivation.

    countable · uncountable
  6. The process of growing a bacterial or other biological entity in an artificial medium.

    countable · uncountable
  7. The growth thus produced.

    countable · uncountable
    I'm headed to the lab to make sure my cell culture hasn't died.
  8. A group of bacteria.

    countable · uncountable
  9. The details on a map that do not represent natural features of the area delineated, such as names and the symbols for towns, roads, meridians, and parallels.

    countable · uncountable
  10. Ellipsis of archaeological culture (“recurring assemblage of artifacts from a specific time and place that may constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society”).

    abbreviation · alt-of · countable · ellipsis · uncountable
  11. Ethnicity, race (and its associated arts, customs, etc.).

    countable · euphemistic · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kʷelh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *kʷélh₁eti Proto-Italic *kʷelō Latin colō Proto-Indo-European *-tew-? Proto-Indo-European *-r-eh₂? Latin -tūra Latin cultūrader. Middle French cultureder. English culture From Middle French culture (“cultivation; culture”), from Latin cultūra (“cultivation; culture”), from cultus, perfect passive participle of colō (“till, cultivate, to grow, worship”) (related to colōnus and colōnia), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to move; to turn (around)”).

verb/ˈkʌlt͡ʃə/British, Received-Pronunciation, Southern, Standard[ˈkʰʌlt͡ʃə]British, Received-Pronunciation, Southern, Standard/ˈkʊlt͡ʃə/Northern-England[ˈkʰʊlt͡ʃə]Northern-England
  1. to maintain in an environment suitable for growth (especially of bacteria) (compare cultivate)

    transitive
  2. to increase the artistic or scientific interest (in something) (compare cultivate)

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kʷelh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *kʷélh₁eti Proto-Italic *kʷelō Latin colō Proto-Indo-European *-tew-? Proto-Indo-European *-r-eh₂? Latin -tūra Latin cultūrader. Middle French cultureder. English culture From Middle French culture (“cultivation; culture”), from Latin cultūra (“cultivation; culture”), from cultus, perfect passive participle of colō (“till, cultivate, to grow, worship”) (related to colōnus and colōnia), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to move; to turn (around)”).

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

culture has 7 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

culture studioculture workshello, culture

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

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.