subculture
US/ˈsʌbˌkʌltʃɚ/
subculture noun: a portion of a culture distinguished by its customs or other features, often in contrast to the larger mainstream culture.
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.
- 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.1974, Charles Gaines, George Butler, Pumping Iron: The Art and Sport of Bodybuilding, page 7
- A culture made by transferring microorganisms from a previous culture to a fresh growth medium
Verb
subculture (third-person singular simple present subcultures, present participle subculturing, simple past and past participle subcultured)
- To transfer (microorganisms) to a fresh growth medium in order to start a new culture
- Cultures were subcultured by 20-fold dilution into fresh MS2D medium approximately every 7 d.1990, Heidi F. Kaeppler et al., “Silicon carbide fiber-mediated DNA delivery into plant cells”, in Plant Cell Reports, volume 9, number 8
subculture meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Tagalog and Malay
subculture in Hindi
- portion of a culture distinguished by its customs or other features
- उपसंस्कृति upsanskŕti
subculture in Tamil
- துணைப்பண்பாடு, பண்பாட்டுக்கிளை
subculture in Tagalog
- portion of a culture distinguished by its customs or other features
- subkultura
subculture in Malay
- portion of a culture distinguished by its customs or other features
- subbudaya
More languagesFewer languages
- subculture in Indonesian
- subbudaya
- subculture in Persian
- خردهفرهنگ
- subculture in Vietnamese
- tiểu văn hóa, nhóm văn hóa
Examples of subculture in a sentence
- The ongoing evolution of Lolita subculture fashion includes, among other things, the ballet style.
- Whiteface is sometimes worn by clowns and mimes, or in the Gothic subculture.
- This subculture is characterized by the adoption of deliberately transgressive online personas within specific, restricted-access groups.
Forms of subculture
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | subcultures |
| alternative clipping | subcul |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | subcultures |
| present participle | subculturing |
| past participle | subcultured |
| past | subcultured |
Origin of subculture
From sub- + culture.
Words formed from subculture
Questions about subculture
- What does subculture mean?
- Subculture means a portion of a culture distinguished by its customs or other features, often in contrast to the larger mainstream culture.
- What is subculture in Hindi?
- Subculture in Hindi is उपसंस्कृति (upsanskŕti). See Subculture meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is subculture?
- Subculture can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce subculture?
- Subculture is pronounced /ˈsʌbˌkʌltʃɚ/ (US).
- What is the plural of subculture?
- The plural of subculture is subcultures.
Words near subculture in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: subculture (page history and authors); subculture (Tamil 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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-subculture.wav.
Cite this entry: “subculture.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/subculture. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.