civilization
Syllables: civ·il·i·za·tionUK/ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən//ˌsɪv.ə.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/
civilization noun: 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.
Noun
civilization (countable and uncountable, plural civilizations)
- 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
- 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.
- Synonyms:
- home, land of the living
- The act or process of civilizing or becoming civilized.
- The teacher's civilization of the child was no easy task.
- Synonyms:
- education, acculturation
- The state or quality of being civilized.
- He was a man of great civilization.
- The act of rendering a criminal process civil.
Proper noun
civilization
- 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.
- 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.
- Synonyms:
- ecumene
- Antonyms:
- wilderness, wilds, anecumene
civilization meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
civilization in Hindi
- organized culture
- सभ्यता sabhyatā, संस्कृति sanskŕti
- human society
- सभ्यता sabhyatā
- state or quality of being civilized
- सभ्यता sabhyatā
civilization in Tamil
- organized culture
- நாகரிகம் nākarikam
civilization in Marathi
- organized culture
- संस्कृती sauskŕtī
civilization in Urdu
- organized culture
- تَہْذِیب tahzīb, تَمَدُّن tamaddun, مَدَنِیَت madaniyat
More languagesFewer languages
- civilization in Bengali
- সভ্যতা śobbhota, তমদ্দুন tomoddun, তহজিব tôhjib
- civilization in Telugu
- నాగరికత nāgarikata
- civilization in Malayalam
- നാഗരികത nāgarikata
- civilization in Kannada
- ನಾಗರೀಕತೆ nāgarīkate
- civilization in Punjabi
- ਸੱਭਿਅਤਾ sabbhiatā, ਸੰਸਕ੍ਰਿਤੀ sanskritī
- civilization in Gujarati
- સંસ્કૃતિ sãskŕti
- civilization in Odia
- ସଭ୍ୟତା sabhyatā
- civilization in Sanskrit
- सभ्यता sabhyatā, संस्कृति saṃskṛti
- civilization in Sinhala
- ශිෂ්ටාචාරය śiṣṭācāraya, සංස්කෘතිය saṁskr̥tiya
- civilization in Assamese
- সভ্যতা xobhyota, সংস্কৃতি xoṅskriti
- civilization in Nepali
- सभ्यता sabhyatā
- civilization in Pashto
- تمدن tamadon, مدنيت madanyat
- civilization in Tagalog
- kabihasnan
- civilization in Arabic
- حَضَارَة ḥaḍāra, تَمَدُّن tamaddun, مَدَنِيَّة madaniyya, تَثْقِيف taṯqīf
- civilization in Malay
- tamadun, peradaban
- civilization in Indonesian
- peradaban
- civilization in Persian
- جامعه jâme'e, تربیت tarbiyat, فرهنگ farhang
- civilization in Thai
- อารยธรรม aa-rá-yá-tam, ความศิวิไลซ์ kwaam-sì-wí-lai
- civilization in Vietnamese
- văn minh
- civilization in Myanmar
- ယဉ်ကျေးမှု yanykye:hmu.
Examples of civilization in a sentence
- Modern civilization is a product of industrialization and globalization.
- 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.1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London...
Synonyms of civilization
Antonyms
Forms of civilization
| plural | civilizations |
|---|---|
| alternative UK | civilisation |
Origin of civilization
Borrowed from French civilisation, equivalent to civilize + -ation or civil + -ization.
Words formed from civilization
- anticivilization
- civilizational
- civilizationally
- civilizationism
- civilizationist
- civilization-state
- cradle of civilization
- cybercivilization
- Harappan Civilization
- hypercivilization
- incivilization
- Indus Civilization
- Indus Valley Civilization
- intercivilization
- microcivilization
- multicivilization
- overcivilization
- postcivilization
- precivilization
- psychocivilization
- subcivilization
- supercivilization
- uncivilization
Phrases with civilization
Questions about civilization
- What does civilization mean?
- Civilization means 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.
- What is civilization in Hindi?
- Civilization in Hindi is सभ्यता (sabhyatā), संस्कृति (sanskŕti). See Civilization meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use civilization in a sentence?
- Modern civilization is a product of industrialization and globalization.
- What part of speech is civilization?
- Civilization can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce civilization?
- Civilization is pronounced /ˌsɪv.ɪ.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/ (UK).
- What is the plural of civilization?
- The plural of civilization is civilizations.
Words near civilization in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: civilization (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-civilization.ogg.
Cite this entry: “civilization.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/civilization. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.