Meaning & use
culture
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Meanings
noununcountable
The shared customs, beliefs, arts, values, and social behavior of a particular group or society.
Grammar: Used without an or plurals for the general idea: language shapes culture. For one society, say a culture (countable sense 2).
Patterns
- shape/influence culture
- respect local culture
- learn about a culture
Food, music, and festivals are all part of culture.
Travel helps students understand another way of life and culture.
The school works to respect the culture of every family.
nouncountable
A particular society, nation, or group with its own way of life, or that way of life itself.
Grammar: Takes an and a plural: a culture, many cultures. Use this when comparing specific groups.
Patterns
- a traditional culture
- different cultures
- study ancient cultures
The museum displays artifacts from several ancient cultures.
Each region of the country has its own distinct culture.
Children who grow up between two cultures often speak two languages.
noununcountableold-fashioned
Appreciation and knowledge of art, music, literature, and intellectual pursuits; refinement of taste and manners.
Grammar: An older, somewhat formal use: a person of culture. It does not mean a society here.
Patterns
- a person of culture
- a center of culture
The old city was once a center of art and culture.
In the novel, the grandmother is a woman of great culture.
He collected paintings and showed genuine culture in his tastes.
nouncountable or uncountabletechnicalmedical
Microorganisms, cells, or tissue grown in a controlled laboratory for study or use.
Grammar: In science it can be countable (a blood culture) or uncountable (growing culture in a dish). Used mainly in biology and medicine.
Patterns
- a blood culture
- grow a culture
- cell/tissue culture
The lab grew a culture of bacteria to test the antibiotic.
Doctors ordered a blood culture to check for infection.
The researchers kept the cell culture at a steady temperature.
Word forms
| plural | cultures |
|---|
Common combinations
- pop/popular culture
- Superhero films are a major part of pop culture.
- company culture
- A friendly company culture helps employees stay motivated.
- culture shock
- She felt culture shock during her first month abroad.
- traditional culture
- Dance plays a big role in the village's traditional culture.
- cell culture
- The vaccine was developed using cell culture techniques.
Synonyms and how they differ
- customs
- The everyday habits of a group; customs are part of culture but not the whole of it.
- heritage
- Heritage is what is inherited from the past, especially valued traditions, while culture also includes present-day behavior.
- civilization
- A civilization is a whole advanced society with cities and institutions, broader and more historical than culture.
Word family
- cultural adjective
- Relating to culture; the city offers many cultural events.
- culturally adverb
- In a way that relates to culture; the two regions are culturally similar.
- cultured adjective
- Well educated in the arts; showing refinement of taste.
- cultivate verb
- To grow crops or develop qualities; unrelated in meaning but sharing the same Latin root.
Commonly confused: culture or cultural? culture or cult?
culture vs cultural
Cultural is the adjective; use it before nouns (cultural differences), while culture is the noun.
culture vs cult
A cult is a small, often extreme religious group; it is not short for culture.
Practice
Which sentence uses culture as a countable noun?
Choose one answer.
Many island cultures uses a plural countable noun for specific societies. The other options use culture as an uncountable general idea or as a laboratory sample.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “culture”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.