Meaning & use
cultural marker
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Meanings
nouncountable
A feature such as a language, custom, food, or symbol that shows which group or tradition a person belongs to.
Grammar: Countable: you can talk about one marker or several markers.
Patterns
- a cultural marker of something
- serve as a cultural marker
- a strong/important cultural marker
For many families, the food eaten at New Year is an important cultural marker.
The way people greet each other is a cultural marker that visitors notice quickly.
Traditional dress can act as a cultural marker even in a modern city.
nouncountabletechnical
Something in a text, film, or object that signals the cultural setting or background of what is shown.
Grammar: Common in academic writing about literature, media, and society.
Patterns
- a cultural marker in something
- use something as a cultural marker
The novel uses brand names as cultural markers of the 1980s.
Researchers listed the cultural markers that appear most often in the advertisements.
Word forms
| plural | cultural markers |
|---|
Common combinations
- an important cultural marker
- Language is often seen as an important cultural marker.
- a cultural marker of identity
- Music can be a powerful cultural marker of identity.
- serve as a cultural marker
- Shared holidays serve as cultural markers for the whole community.
- lose a cultural marker
- When a language dies, the community loses a cultural marker.
Synonyms and how they differ
- cultural symbol
- Close in meaning, but a symbol is usually a specific image or object, while a marker can also be a behavior or custom.
- sign of identity
- More general and less academic; it can refer to personal as well as group identity.
Word family
- culture noun
- the shared customs, beliefs, and art of a group.
- cultural adjective
- relating to the customs and ideas of a group.
- culturally adverb
- in a way that relates to culture.
Commonly confused: cultural marker or cultural icon?
cultural marker vs cultural icon
A cultural icon is a famous person or thing that many people recognize, not a sign of group identity.
Practice
Which sentence uses "cultural marker" correctly?
Choose one answer.
A cultural marker is a feature that shows group identity, so sharing festival meals fits. The other options treat it as a physical object, which the phrase does not mean.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “cultural marker”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.