Meaning & use
cultivation
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Meanings
noununcountable
The work of preparing land and growing plants or crops on it.
Grammar: Usually uncountable: the cultivation of rice, not a cultivation of rice.
Patterns
- the cultivation of something
- under cultivation
The cultivation of tea requires warm, wet hillsides.
Much of the valley is now under cultivation after years of neglect.
Farmers in the region switched from wheat to the cultivation of olives.
noununcountablefigurative
The slow, careful effort to develop a skill, quality, friendship or habit.
Grammar: Used with of and an abstract noun: the cultivation of patience.
Patterns
- the cultivation of something
Good teachers focus on the cultivation of curiosity in children.
The cultivation of useful contacts took her years.
Meditation encourages the cultivation of a calm mind.
noununcountableformalold-fashioned
Refinement in manners, taste and education.
Grammar: Describes a person's polished manner and takes no article: a woman of great cultivation.
Patterns
- a person of cultivation
His cultivation showed in the way he spoke about music and art.
The novel portrays a family of wealth and cultivation.
She admired the quiet cultivation of her host.
Common combinations
- under cultivation
- Over half of the island is under cultivation.
- intensive cultivation
- Intensive cultivation can wear out the soil.
- the cultivation of crops
- The cultivation of crops depends on regular rainfall.
- land suitable for cultivation
- Little land here is suitable for cultivation because of the rocks.
- the cultivation of a skill
- The cultivation of a skill takes patience and daily practice.
Synonyms and how they differ
- farming
- Farming is the everyday word for the whole business of raising crops or animals, while cultivation stresses tending the soil and plants.
- growing
- Growing is plainer and covers any raising of plants, whereas cultivation sounds more formal and deliberate.
- nurturing
- Nurturing is used mostly for people and relationships, while cultivation suits both plants and long-term skills.
- development
- Development is broader and need not involve careful tending, whereas cultivation suggests steady care.
Opposites
Word family
- cultivate verb
- to prepare land or to develop a quality or relationship
- cultivated adjective
- grown on farmland, or refined and well educated
- cultivator noun
- a farmer or a tool for loosening soil
- uncultivated adjective
- not farmed or not refined
Commonly confused: cultivation or culture?
cultivation vs culture
Culture means the customs and arts of a society; cultivation is the active process of growing or developing something.
Practice
Which phrase best completes the sentence? 'The ___ of friendships takes time and effort.'
Choose one answer.
After 'the' and before 'of' a noun is needed, and cultivation fits the figurative idea of carefully developing something. Cultivator is a person or tool and the other two are not nouns.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “cultivation”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.