Noun
subculture (plural subcultures)
- A portion of a culture distinguished by its customs or other features, often in contrast to the larger mainstream culture.
The goth subculture has its own mode of dress, and it has a characteristic musical style.
1974, Charles Gaines, George Butler, Pumping Iron: The Art and Sport of Bodybuilding, page 7:Like those activities, bodybuilding is an obsession, a living (for a few), and a way of life for the people involved in it—a subculture, in a word, with its own values, aesthetics and vocabulary.
2014 November 24, Anand Giridharadas, “How to Talk About Race Without Talking About Race”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:White Americans are transitioning toward minority status for the first time. As they do, perhaps their ways will be treated less as the default mainstream, and more as subcultures among subcultures.
2021 July 9, Michelle Goldberg, “The Christian Right Is in Decline, and It’s Taking America With It”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:White evangelicals once saw themselves “as the owners of mainstream American culture and morality and values,” said Jones. Now they are just another subculture.
- (biology) A culture made by transferring microorganisms from a previous culture to a fresh growth medium
Translations
portion of a culture distinguished by its customs or other features
Verb
subculture (third-person singular simple present subcultures, present participle subculturing, simple past and past participle subcultured)
- (biology) To transfer (microorganisms) to a fresh growth medium in order to start a new culture
1990, Heidi F. Kaeppler et al., “Silicon carbide fiber-mediated DNA delivery into plant cells”, in Plant Cell Reports, volume 9, number 8:Cultures were subcultured by 20-fold dilution into fresh MS2D medium approximately every 7 d.