culture

1. culture (noun) — sense 1

Definition: The arts, customs, lifestyles, background, and habits that characterize humankind, or a particular society or nation.

Example: Castration of bulls was a socialization process that turned a bull into an ox; in this transformation something wild became something very useful; nature became culture.

2. culture (noun) — sense 2

Definition: The beliefs, values, behaviour, and material objects that constitute a people's way of life.

Example: I condemn neither way; but culture works differently. It does not try to teach down to the level of inferior classes; it does not try to win them for this or that sect of its own, with ready-made judgments and watchwords. It seeks to do away with classes; to make the best that has been thought and known in the world current everywhere; […]

3. culture (noun) — sense 3

Definition: The conventional conducts and ideologies of a community; the system comprising the accepted norms and values of a society.

Example: Few concepts are as emotionally charged as that of race. The word conjures up a mixture of associations—culture, ethnicity, genetics, subjugation, exclusion and persecution.

4. culture (verb) — sense 1

Definition: to maintain in an environment suitable for growth (especially of bacteria) (compare cultivate)

5. culture (verb) — sense 2

Definition: to increase the artistic or scientific interest (in something) (compare cultivate)