verb
- Teach or refine to be discriminative in taste or judgment.
- usage: "Cultivate your musical taste"; "Train your tastebuds"; "She is well schooled in poetry"
- Raise from a barbaric to a civilized state.
- usage: "The wild child found wandering in the forest was gradually civilized"
adjective
- Having a high state of culture and development both social and technological.
- usage: "terrorist acts that shocked the civilized world"
- synonyms: civilised
- Marked by refinement in taste and manners.
- usage: "cultivated speech"; "cultured Bostonians"; "cultured tastes"; "a genteel old lady"; "polite society"
- synonyms: civilised, cultivated, cultured, genteel, polite
WordNet 3.0 © 2006 by Princeton University
| APA | WordNet. (2010). civilized. Retrieved September 21, 2026, from http://smartdefine.org/civilized/definitions/1170742 |
| Chicago | WordNet. 2010. "civilized" http://smartdefine.org/civilized/definitions/1170742 (accessed September 21, 2026). |
| Harvard | WordNet 2010, civilized, Smart Define, viewed 21 September, 2026, <http://smartdefine.org/civilized/definitions/1170742>. |
| MLA | WordNet. "civilized" 23 October 2010. Web. 21 September 2026. <http://smartdefine.org/civilized/definitions/1170742> |