Meaning & use
cultivated
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Meanings
adjectivecomparableformal
Refined and well educated, with polished manners and good taste.
Grammar: Describes people and their tastes: a cultivated voice.
Patterns
- a cultivated person
- a cultivated taste
She had a cultivated voice and read poetry in three languages.
The host was a cultivated man who loved opera.
They shared a cultivated taste in art.
adjectivebefore a noun
Prepared and used for growing crops, or grown by people rather than found in the wild.
Grammar: Before a noun: cultivated land, cultivated plants.
Patterns
- cultivated land
- cultivated plants
Only a small part of the island is cultivated land.
Cultivated rice looks different from wild rice.
The garden was full of cultivated roses.
adjectivebefore a nounfigurative
Developed with effort, for example a quality, skill or relationship.
Grammar: Often shows a deliberate effort: a carefully cultivated image.
Patterns
- carefully cultivated
He wore a carefully cultivated air of mystery.
Their cultivated friendship brought many opportunities.
She presented a cultivated image of calm.
Common combinations
- cultivated land
- Farmers work the cultivated land below the hill.
- cultivated taste
- He has a cultivated taste for classical music.
- carefully cultivated
- Her carefully cultivated image helped her career.
- cultivated plants
- Cultivated plants need more water than wild ones.
- cultivated manner
- He spoke in a cultivated manner.
- highly cultivated
- The family was highly cultivated and well traveled.
Synonyms and how they differ
- refined
- Refined stresses polish and elegance of manner, while cultivated also suggests education.
- cultured
- Cultured is almost the same but stresses knowledge of arts and learning.
- sophisticated
- Sophisticated suggests worldly experience and style, not necessarily education.
- farmed
- Farmed is the plain word for land used for crops, as opposed to the wider sense of cultivated.
Opposites
Word family
- cultivate verb
- to prepare land for crops, or to develop a quality
- cultivation noun
- the growing of crops, or developing a skill
- cultivator noun
- a person or machine that prepares soil
- cultivar noun
- a plant variety created by people
- uncultivated adjective
- not farmed or not refined
Commonly confused: cultivated or cultured? cultivated or cultural?
cultivated vs cultured
Cultured can also mean grown in a laboratory, as in cultured pearls, and cultivated does not have that use.
cultivated vs cultural
Cultural relates to the customs and arts of a society, while cultivated describes a refined person or farmed land.
Practice
Which phrase uses 'cultivated' about farming?
Choose one answer.
Cultivated land is land prepared for crops. A cultivated accent is the refined sense, and rumors and mistakes are not usually described this way.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “cultivated”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.