civilization

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civilization

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Civilization

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Alternative forms

• civilisation (UK)

Etymology

Borrowed from French civilisation.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): [ˌsɪv.ə.lɑeˈzæɪ.ʃən]
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌsɪv.ə.ləˈzeɪ.ʃən/

Audio (US):

(file)

Noun

civilization (countable and uncountable, plural civilizations)

1. An organized culture encompassing many communities, often on the scale of a nation or a people; a stage or system of social, political, or technical development.

   the Aztec civilization

   Western civilization

   Modern civilization is a product of industrialization and globalization.

   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., pages rise and fall:

     But civilizations, like the penis, rise and fall, and when the towers and battlements crumble into the earth, they return to the embrace of the Great Mother.

2. (uncountable) Human society, particularly civil society.

   A hermit doesn't much care for civilization.

   I'm glad to be back in civilization after a day with that rowdy family.

   • 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 159:

     Civilisation has imbued man's minds with false ideas of the evil of sex and its fulfilment.

3. The act or process of civilizing or becoming civilized.

   The teacher's civilization of the child was no easy task.

4. The state or quality of being civilized.

   He was a man of great civilization.

5. (obsolete) The act of rendering a criminal process civil.

Synonyms

• (large-scale stage of societal development): culture, order
• (group of countries): sphere
• (act of civilizing): education, acculturation
• (preferred human society): home, the land of the living

Derived terms

• anticivilization
• civilizational
• civilizationally
• civilization-state
• cradle of civilization
• cybercivilization
• Harappan Civilization
• hypercivilization
• incivilization
• Indus Civilization
• Indus Valley Civilization
• intercivilization
• Kanglei civilization
• Kangleipak civilization
• Manipuri civilization
• Meetei civilization
• microcivilization
• multicivilization
• overcivilization
• postcivilization
• precivilization
• psychocivilization
• subcivilization
• supercivilization
• uncivilization

 

Related terms

• civilize

Translations

organized culture

Albanian: qytetërim (sq), kulturë (sq) Amharic: ስልጣኔ m (səlṭane), ሥልጣኔ m (śəlṭane) Arabic: حَضَارَة (ar) f (ḥaḍāra), تَمَدُّن m (tamaddun), مَدَنِيَّة f (madaniyya) Egyptian Arabic: حضارة f (ḥaḍāra) Hijazi Arabic: حضارة f (ḥaḍāra) South Levantine Arabic: حضارة f (ḥaḍāra, ḥaḍāre) Armenian: քաղաքակրթություն (hy) (kʻaġakʻakrtʻutʻyun) Asturian: civilización f Azerbaijani: sivilizasiya, mədəniyyət (az) Belarusian: цывіліза́цыя f (cyvilizácyja) Bengali: সভ্যতা (bn) (śobbhota), তমদ্দুন (bn) (tomoddun), তহজিব (tôhjib) Breton: sevenadur (br) m Bulgarian: цивилиза́ция (bg) f (civilizácija) Burmese: ယဉ်ကျေးမှု (my) (yanykye:hmu.) Carpathian Rusyn: цівіліза́ція f (civilizácija) Catalan: civilització (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 文明 (zh) (wénmíng), 文化 (zh) (wénhuà) Coptic: ⲓⲉⲃⲟⲩⲱⲓⲛⲓ m (iebouōini) Czech: civilizace (cs) f Danish: civilisation c, kultur (da) c Dutch: beschaving (nl) f Esperanto: civilizacio Estonian: tsivilisatsioon Faroese: mentan f, siðmenning f Finnish: kulttuuri (fi), korkeakulttuuri (fi), sivilisaatio (fi) French: civilisation (fr) f Galician: civilización (gl) f Georgian: ცივილიზაცია (civilizacia) German: Zivilisation (de) f, Kultur (de) f Greek: πολιτισμός (el) m (politismós) Hebrew: צִיוִילִיזַצְיָה / ציוויליזציה (he) f (tsivilizátsia) Hindi: सभ्यता (hi) f (sabhyatā), तहज़ीब f (tahzīb) Hungarian: civilizáció (hu) Icelandic: siðmenning f Indonesian: peradaban (id) Irish: sibhialtacht f Italian: civiltà (it) f Japanese: 文明 (ja) (ぶんめい, bunmei) Kazakh: өркениет (örkeniet) Khmer: អរិយធម៌ (km) (ʼaʼreyaʼthɔə) Korean: 문명(文明) (ko) (munmyeong), 문화(文化) (ko) (munhwa) Kurdish: Central Kurdish: ئاوەدانی (awedanî) Northern Kurdish: medeniyet (ku), sivîlîzasyon (ku) Kyrgyz: цивилизация (tsivilizatsiya), маданият (ky) (madaniyat) Lao: ອາລິຍະທຳ (lo) (ʼā li nya tham), ອາລະຍະທຳ (ʼā la nya tham) Latin: exculta hominum vīta f Latvian: civilizācija (lv) f Ligurian: civiltæ Lithuanian: civilizacija f Macedonian: цивилиза́ција f (civilizácija), култу́ра f (kultúra) Malay: tamadun (ms), peradaban Maltese: ċiviltà f Manchu: ᡧᡠ ᡤᡝᠩᡤᡳᠶᡝᠨ (šu genggiyen) Maori: puāwaitanga Mongolian: Cyrillic: соёл иргэншил (sojol irgenšil) Nepali: सभ्यता (sabhyatā) Norwegian: Bokmål: sivilisasjon (no) m Ottoman Turkish: مدنیت (medeniyyet), تمدن (temeddün) Pashto: تمدن (ps) m (tamadon), مدنيت m (madanyat) Persian: تَمَدُّن (fa) (tamaddon), مَدَنِیَّت (fa) (madaniyyat) Piedmontese: sivilisassion f Polish: cywilizacja (pl) f Portuguese: civilização (pt) f Romanian: civilizație (ro) f, cultură (ro) f Russian: цивилиза́ция (ru) f (civilizácija), культу́ра (ru) f (kulʹtúra) Sanskrit: सभ्यता (sa) f (sabhyatā) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: цивилиза́ција f Roman: civilizácija (sh) f Slovak: civilizácia f Slovene: civilizacija (sl) f Spanish: civilización (es) f Swedish: civilisation (sv) c, kultur (sv) c Tagalog: kabihasnan (tl) Tajik: тамаддун (tamaddun), маданият (madaniyat) Thai: อารยธรรม (th) (aa-rá-yá-tam) Tigrinya: ስልጣኔ (səlṭane) Turkish: ekinç, medeniyet (tr), uygarlık (tr) Turkmen: medeniýet Ukrainian: цивіліза́ція (uk) f (cyvilizácija) Urdu: تَہْذِیب (ur) f (tahzīb), تَمَدُّن m (tamaddun), مَدَنِیَت f (madaniyat) Uzbek: tamaddun (uz), madaniyat (uz), tsivilizatsiya, sivilizatsiya (uz) Vietnamese: văn minh (vi) (文明) Walloon: civilizåcion (wa) f Welsh: gwareiddiad m West Frisian: beskaving Yiddish: ציוויליזאַציע f (tsivilizatsye)

human society

Czech: civilizace (cs) f Danish: civilisation c Dutch: bewoonde wereld Finnish: sivistys (fi), sivistynyt yhteiskunta German: Kultur (de) f Greek: πολιτισμός (el) m (politismós) Hebrew: צִיוִילִיזַצְיָה / ציוויליזציה (he) f (tsivilizátsia) Hungarian: civilizáció (hu) Irish: sibhialtacht f Italian: civiltà (it) f Macedonian: цивилиза́ција f (civilizácija), култу́ра f (kultúra) Portuguese: civilização (pt) f Romanian: civilizație (ro) f Russian: цивилиза́ция (ru) f (civilizácija), культу́ра (ru) f (kulʹtúra) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: цивилиза́ција f Roman: civilizácija (sh) f Swedish: civilisation (sv) c Tagalog: kabihasnan (tl) Turkish: insanlık (tr)

act or process of civilizing or becoming civilized

Asturian: civilización f Catalan: civilització (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 文明化 (zh) (wénmínhuà) Danish: civilisering c Dutch: civilisatie (nl) Esperanto: civilizo (eo) Finnish: sivistäminen (fi), sivistyminen (fi), sivilisaatio (fi) Galician: civilización (gl) f German: Zivilisiertwerden n Greek: πολιτισμός (el) m (politismós) Italian: civilizzazione (it) f Japanese: 文明化 (ぶんめいか, bunmeika) Korean: 문명화(文明化) (munmyeonghwa) Macedonian: цивилизи́раност f (civilizíranost) Maori: puāwaitanga, whakapuāwaitanga Portuguese: civilização (pt) f Romanian: civilizare (ro) f Russian: цивилиза́ция (ru) f (civilizácija) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: цивилѝзӣрано̄ст f Roman: civilìzīranōst (sh) f Swedish: civilisering (sv) c Turkish: medenîleşme, uygarlaşma (tr)

state or quality of being civilized

Catalan: civilitat (ca) f Finnish: sivistyneisyys (fi) Greek: πολιτισμός (el) m (politismós) Irish: sibhialtacht f Italian: civiltà (it) f Latin: cīvīlitās f Macedonian: цивилизи́раност f (civilizíranost) Manx: ardveenid f Maori: puāwaitanga Portuguese: civilização (pt) f Romanian: civilitate f Russian: цивилизо́ванность (ru) f (civilizóvannostʹ), культу́ра (ru) f (kulʹtúra) Turkish: sivilleşme (tr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Kurdish: Central Kurdish: (please verify) شارستانێتی (şaristanêtî)

Proper noun

civilization

1. (inherently emic, sometimes capitalized) Collectively, those people and places of the world considered to have a high standard of behavior and / or a high level of development. Commonly subjectively used by people of one society to exclusively refer to their society, or their elite sub-group, or a few associated societies, implying all others, in time or geography or status, as something less than civilised, as savages or barbarians. (Compare refinement, elitism, civilised society, the Civilised World.

   Antonyms: wilderness, wilds; anecumene (archaic)

   Coordinate terms: frontier, outlands, wastelands

   Near-synonym: ecumene (archaic)

   Some of the tourists in the upcountry might have embarrassed themselves if they'd been capable of having any shame, whining that they couldn't wait to get back to civilization.

Translations

people of the world considered to have a high standard of behavior

Catalan: civilització (ca) f Danish: civilisation c Dutch: beschaving (nl) German: Zivilisation (de) f Hungarian: civilizáció (hu) Italian: civiltà (it) f, civilizzazione (it) f Korean: 교양인 (ko) (gyoyang'in) Norwegian: sivilisasjon (no) m Persian: (please verify) تمدّن (fa) (tamaddon) Polish: cywilizacja (pl) f Portuguese: civilização (pt) f Russian: цивилиза́ция (ru) f (civilizácija) Swedish: civilisation (sv) c

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Bulgarian: (please verify) цивилизация (bg) (civilizacija), (please verify) цивилизованност (civilizovannost), (please verify) култура (bg) (kultura) Esperanto: (10) (please verify) civilizo (eo) French: (please verify) civilisation (fr) Latin: (please verify) civilizatio Norwegian: (please verify) kulturen f Telugu: (please verify) నాగరికత (te) (nāgarikata) Turkish: (please verify) medeniyet (tr), (please verify) uygarlık (tr)

References

• “civilization”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “civilization”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “civilization”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• "civilization" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 57.
• civilization in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.