The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought.
These patterns, traits, and products considered as the expression of a particular period, class, community, or population: Edwardian culture; Japanese culture; the culture of poverty.
These patterns, traits, and products considered with respect to a particular category, such as a field, subject, or mode of expression: religious culture in the Middle Ages; musical culture; oral culture.
The predominating attitudes and behavior that characterize the functioning of a group or organization.
Development of the intellect through training or education.
Enlightenment resulting from such training or education.
The growing of microorganisms, tissue cells, or other living matter in a specially prepared nutrient medium.
Such a growth or colony, as of bacteria.
Intellectual and artistic activity and the works produced by it.
Development of the intellect through training or education.
Enlightenment resulting from such training or education.
The growing of microorganisms, tissue cells, or other living matter in a specially prepared nutrient medium.
Such a growth or colony, as of bacteria.
A high degree of taste and refinement formed by aesthetic and intellectual training.
Special training and development: voice culture for singers and actors.
The cultivation of soil; tillage.
The breeding of animals or growing of plants, especially to produce improved stock.
Biology
The growing of microorganisms, tissue cells, or other living matter in a specially prepared nutrient medium.
Such a growth or colony, as of bacteria.
tr.v.
cul·tured, cul·tur·ing, cul·tures
To cultivate.
To grow (microorganisms or other living matter) in a specially prepared nutrient medium.
To use (a substance) as a medium for culture: culture milk.
[Middle English, cultivation, from Old French, from Latin cultūra, from cultus, past participle of colere; see cultivate.]
Usage Note: The application of the term culture to the collective attitudes and behavior of corporations arose in business jargon during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Unlike many locutions that emerge in business jargon, it spread to popular use in newspapers and magazines. Few Usage Panelists object to it. Over 80 percent of Panelists accept the sentence The new management style is a reversal of GE's traditional corporate culture, in which virtually everything the company does is measured in some form and filed away somewhere. · Ever since C.P. Snow wrote of the gap between "the two cultures" (the humanities and science) in the 1950s, the notion that culture can refer to smaller segments of society has seemed implicit. Its usage in the corporate world may also have been facilitated by increased awareness of the importance of genuine cultural differences in a global economy, as between Americans and the Japanese, that have a broad effect on business practices.
1440, "the tilling of land," from L. cultura, from pp. stem of colere "tend, guard, cultivate, till" (see cult). The figurative sense of "cultivation through education" is first attested 1510. Meaning "the intellectual side of civilization" is from 1805; that of "collective customs and achievements of a people" is from 1867. Slang culture vulture is from 1947. Culture shock first recorded 1940.
"For without culture or holiness, which are always the gift of a very few, a man may renounce wealth or any other external thing, but he cannot renounce hatred, envy, jealousy, revenge. Culture is the sanctity of the intellect." [William Butler Yeats]
a particular society at a particular time and place; "early Mayan civilization"
2.
the tastes in art and manners that are favored by a social group
3.
all the knowledge and values shared by a society [syn: acculturation]
4.
(biology) the growing of microorganisms in a nutrient medium (such as gelatin or agar); "the culture of cells in a Petri dish"
5.
a highly developed state of perfection; having a flawless or impeccable quality; "they performed with great polish"; "I admired the exquisite refinement of his prose"; "almost an inspiration which gives to all work that finish which is almost art"--Joseph Conrad [syn: polish]
6.
the attitudes and behavior that are characteristic of a particular social group or organization; "the developing drug culture"; "the reason that the agency is doomed to inaction has something to do with the FBI culture"
7.
the raising of plants or animals; "the culture of oysters"
verb
1.
grow in a special preparation; "the biologist grows microorganisms"
A growth of microorganisms, viruses, or tissue cells in a specially prepared nutrient medium under supervised conditions.
The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought. Culture is learned and shared within social groups and is transmitted by nongenetic means.
Verb
To grow microorganisms, viruses, or tissue cells in a nutrient medium.
The sum of attitudes, customs, and beliefs that distinguishes one group of people from another. Culture is transmitted, through language, material objects, ritual, institutions, and art, from one generation to the next.
Note: Anthropologists consider that the requirements for culture (language use, tool making, and conscious regulation of sex) are essential features that distinguish humans from other animals.
Note: Culture also refers to refined music, art, and literature; one who is well versed in these subjects is considered “cultured.”
[Chapter:] Anthropology, Psychology, and Sociology
Main Entry: 1cul·ture Pronunciation: 'k&l-ch&r Function: noun 1 a: the integrated pattern of human behavior that includes
thought, speech, action, and artifacts and depends upon the human capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations b: the customary beliefs, social forms,
and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group 2 a: the act or process of growing living material (as bacteria or viruses) in prepared nutrient media b: a product of cultivation in nutrient media —cul·tur·al/'k&lch(-&)-r&l/adjective
—cul·tur·al·ly/-r&-lE/adverb
Main Entry: 2culture Function: transitive verb Inflected Forms: cul·tured; cul·tur·ing/'k&lch-(&-)ri[ng]/ 1: to grow (as microorganisms or tissues) in a prepared medium 2: to start a culture from <culture soil>; also: to make a culture of
<culture milk>
Ag"ri*cul`ture\ (?; 135), n. [L. agricultura; ager field + cultura cultivation: cf. F. agriculture. See Acre and Culture.] The art or science of cultivating the ground, including the harvesting of crops, and the rearing and management of live stock; tillage; husbandry; farming.
Ar`bor*i*cul"ture\ (?; 135), n. [L. arbor tree + cultura. See Culture.] The cultivation of trees and shrubs, chiefly for timber or for ornamental purposes.
Col"o*ny\, n.; pl. Colonies. [L. colonia, fr. colonus farmer, fr. colere to cultivate, dwell: cf. F. colonie. Cf. Culture.]1. A company of people transplanted from their mother country to a remote province or country, and remaining subject to the jurisdiction of the parent state; as, the British colonies in America. The first settlers of New England were the best of Englishmen, well educated, devout Christians, and zealous lovers of liberty. There was never a colony formed of better materials. --Ames. 2. The district or country colonized; a settlement. 3. A company of persons from the same country sojourning in a foreign city or land; as, the American colony in Paris. 4. (Nat. Hist.) A number of animals or plants living or growing together, beyond their usual range.
Cul"ture\ (k?l"t?r; 135), n. [F. culture, L. cultura, fr. colere to till, cultivate; of uncertain origin. Cf. Colony.]1. The act or practice of cultivating, or of preparing the earth for seed and raising crops by tillage; as, the culture of the soil. 2. The act of, or any labor or means employed for, training, disciplining, or refining the moral and intellectual nature of man; as, the culture of the mind. If vain our toil We ought to blame the culture, not the soil. --Pepe. 3. The state of being cultivated; result of cultivation; physical improvement; enlightenment and discipline acquired by mental and moral training; civilization; refinement in manners and taste. What the Greeks expressed by their paidei`a, the Romans by their humanitas, we less happily try to express by the more artificial word culture. --J. C. Shairp. The list of all the items of the general life of a people represents that whole which we call its culture. --Tylor. Culture fluid, a fluid in which the germs of microscopic organisms are made to develop, either for purposes of study or as a means of modifying their virulence.
Cul"ture\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cultured (-t?rd; 135); p. pr. & vb. n. Culturing.] To cultivate; to educate. They came . . . into places well inhabited and cultured. --Usher.
Hor"ti*cul`ture\, n. [L. hortus garden + cultura culture: cf. F. horticulture. See Yard an inclosure, and Culture.] The cultivation of a garden or orchard; the art of cultivating gardens or orchards.
Cul"ture\, n. 1. (Biol.) (a) The cultivation of bacteria or other organisms in artificial media or under artificial conditions. (b) The collection of organisms resulting from such a cultivation. Note: The word is used adjectively with the above senses in many phrases, such as: culture medium, any one of the various mixtures of gelatin, meat extracts, etc., in which organisms cultivated; culture flask, culture oven, culture tube, gelatin culture, plate culture, etc. 2. (Cartography) Those details of a map, collectively, which do not represent natural features of the area delineated, as names and the symbols for towns, roads, houses, bridges, meridians, and parallels.
![[P]](http://cache.lexico.com/g/d/premium_mh.gif){kind=small}
Audio Help [kuhl-cher] Pronunciation Key noun, verb, -tured, -tur·ing. 
l
ch
r)
