cultivate
Syllables: cul·ti·vateUK/ˈkʌltɪveɪt/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/ˈkʌltɪvɛjt/
cultivate verb: to grow plants, notably crops.
Verb
cultivate (third-person singular simple present cultivates, present participle cultivating, simple past and past participle cultivated)
- To grow plants, notably crops.
- Most farmers in this region cultivate maize.
- So unhealthy is this valley, which is the home of large game, that whole kraals full of people who have tried to cultivate the rich land, have died in it of fever, or fled away leaving their crops unreaped.1917, H. Rider Haggard, Finished
- To nurture; to foster; to tend.
- They tried to cultivate an interest in learning among their students.
- Left also to himself by guardians[…] he cultivated more his imagination than his judgment1819, John William Polidori, The Vampyre
- To turn or stir soil in preparation for planting or as a method of weed control between growing crop plants.
cultivate meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
cultivate in Tamil
- பயன்படுத்து, பயிர்செய், பயிர்செய்தல், பயிர் செய், பயிர்களுக்காக நிலத்தைப் பண்படுத்து, கவனம் செலுத்திப் பேணு
cultivate in Marathi
- to cultivate, till
- कसणे kasṇe
cultivate in Urdu
- جوتنا, کاشت کرنا, تعلقات بڑھانا, اگانا, زراعت کرنا
cultivate in Bengali
- to cultivate, farm, till
- চষা cośa
More languagesFewer languages
- cultivate in Telugu
- వ్యవసాయముచేయు vyavasāyamucēyu
- cultivate in Malayalam
- കൃഷി ചെയ്യുക
- cultivate in Kannada
- ಆರಂಬಮಾಡು, ಕೃಷಿ ಮಾಡು, ಬೇಸಾಯಮಾಡು, ಸಾಗುವಳಿ ಮಾಡು
- cultivate in Gujarati
- ખેતી કરવી
- cultivate in Odia
- ଚାଷ କରିବା
- cultivate in Nepali
- कमाउनु kamāunu
- cultivate in Vietnamese
- cày cấy, canh tác
Examples of cultivate in a sentence
- For John Henry Newman, “higher” meant cultivating the mind for its own sake.
- Neighbors turning in neighbors for wrong-think cultivates the habits of an unfree society.
- “They told me, ‘Volodia, I will be cultivating, I will rebuild here.
Forms of cultivate
| third-person singular present | cultivates |
|---|---|
| present participle | cultivating |
| past participle | cultivated |
| past | cultivated |
Origin of cultivate
From Medieval Latin cultivātus, perfect passive participle of cultivō (“till, cultivate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) for more), from cultīvus (“tilled”), from Latin cultus, perfect passive participle of colō (“till, cultivate”), which comes from earlier *quelō, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to move; to turn (around)”). Cognates include Ancient Greek πέλω (pélō) and Sanskrit चरति (cárati). The same Proto-Indo-European root also gave Latin in-quil-īnus (“inhabitant”) and anculus (“servant”).
Words formed from cultivate
Questions about cultivate
- What does cultivate mean?
- Cultivate means to grow plants, notably crops.
- What is cultivate in Tamil?
- Cultivate in Tamil is பயன்படுத்து, பயிர்செய், பயிர்செய்தல். See Cultivate meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is cultivate?
- Cultivate is a verb.
- How do you pronounce cultivate?
- Cultivate is pronounced /ˈkʌltɪveɪt/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of cultivate?
- The past tense of cultivate is cultivated.
Words near cultivate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cultivate (page history and authors); cultivate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); कसणे (Marathi) (page history and authors); cultivate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); চষা (Bengali) (page history and authors); వ్యవసాయముచేయు (Telugu) (page history and authors); cultivate (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cultivate (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cultivate (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cultivate (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); कमाउनु (Nepali) (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-cultivate.ogg.
Cite this entry: “cultivate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cultivate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.