monoculture
/ˈmɒnəˌkʌlt͡ʃə(ɹ)/
monoculture noun: the cultivation of a single crop at a time.
Noun
monoculture (countable and uncountable, plural monocultures)
- The cultivation of a single crop at a time.
- Monocultures are bad for the environment; as we forced golden, waving wheat to take over the planet, other species faltered and failed, rather than rising on their merits.2023 September 30, Martha Gill, “When Taylor Swift reaps country-sized riches, other artists are squeezed out”, in The Observer, →ISSN
- As we Irish discovered in the great famine of 1845-49, monocultures are generally not a good idea and we abandon biodiversity at our peril. Farrell and Berjon make the same point about our online world: the internet has become an extractive and fragile monoculture.2024 May 4, John Naughton, “The internet is in decline – it needs rewilding”, in The Guardian
- Antonyms:
- polyculture
- A culture or society that lacks diversity; a society marked by monoculturalism.
- It also isn’t going to be broadcast on TV networks that yearn to re-create the previous century’s monoculture. Our attention spans and tastes keep fracturing, and the ratings for late-night comedy keep declining.2023 September 27, Spencer Kornhaber, “The Weirdos Living Inside Our Phones”, in The Atlantic
- We must end the collusive relationship between government, Big Tech, Big Finance and corporate media that creates an ideological monoculture eager to punish people for their beliefs.2025 January, Kristen Waggoner, quotee, “A New Direction for Religious Freedom”, in Decision: The Evangelical Voice for Today, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 13, column 1
Verb
monoculture (third-person singular simple present monocultures, present participle monoculturing, simple past and past participle monocultured)
- To cultivate such a crop
monoculture meaning in Tamil and Urdu
monoculture in Tamil
- ஒரு பயிர் சாகுபடி, ஒரே வகைப் பயிர்
monoculture in Urdu
- یک فصلی
Examples of monoculture in a sentence
- Companion planting with Japanese clover increased the Cd concentration in crops compared to the monoculture.
- The intercropping system altered bacterial community structures in the rhizosphere as opposed to that in monocultured crops.
- So, although it is often asserted that monocultures lead to increased risks of disease and pest attack, the evidence is pauce.
Antonyms of monoculture
Forms of monoculture
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | monocultures |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | monocultures |
| present participle | monoculturing |
| past participle | monocultured |
| past | monocultured |
Origin of monoculture
From mono- + culture.
Words formed from monoculture
Questions about monoculture
- What does monoculture mean?
- Monoculture means the cultivation of a single crop at a time.
- What is monoculture in Tamil?
- Monoculture in Tamil is ஒரு பயிர் சாகுபடி, ஒரே வகைப் பயிர். See Monoculture meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is monoculture?
- Monoculture can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce monoculture?
- Monoculture is pronounced /ˈmɒnəˌkʌlt͡ʃə(ɹ)/.
- What is the plural of monoculture?
- The plural of monoculture is monocultures.
Words near monoculture in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: monoculture (page history and authors); monoculture (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); monoculture (Urdu Wiktionary) (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Neøn-monoculture.wav.
Cite this entry: “monoculture.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/monoculture. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.