Meaning of civilization in English

civilization

noun

(UK usually civilisation)

/ˌsɪv.əl.aɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/ us

/ˌsɪv.əl.əˈzeɪ.ʃən/

civilization noun (DEVELOPED SOCIETY)

human society with its well developed social organizations, or the culture and way of life of a society or country at a particular period in time:

Some people think that nuclear war would mean the end of civilization.

Cuzco was the centre of one of the world's most famous civilizations, that of the Incas.

C1 [ U ] mainly humorous

a place that has comfortable living conditions:

How does it feel to be back in civilization after all those weeks in a tent?

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We spent a week visiting the wonders of Ancient Greek civilization.
I heard a radio programme recently all about the Aztec civilization in Central America.
Historians still argue about what causes such a mighty civilization to collapse.
I hated living in such an isolated place and longed to get back to civilization.
Many different civilizations have left their mark on the country and its culture.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Society - general words

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Comfortable and uncomfortable

civilization noun (PROCESS)

[ U ]

the process of educating a society so that its culture becomes more developed:

The civilization of Britain by the Romans took years to complete.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Teaching in general

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(Definition of civilization from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

civilization | American Dictionary

civilization

noun [ C/U ]

/ˌsɪv·ə·ləˈzeɪ·ʃən, -lɑɪ-/

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a highly developed culture, including its social organization, government, laws, and arts, or the culture of a social group or country at a particular time:

[ U ] Widespread use of the Internet may change modern civilization.

[ C ] The Inca civilization flourished for a long time.

(Definition of civilization from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of civilization

civilization

A formulation for the number of communicating civilizations in the galaxy.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Rather, the old, single framework version of area studies that focused on the static lines and boundaries between "peoples", "cultures", and "civilizations" has become outdated.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The vehicle for achieving legitimation of self and person in ancient civilizations was most often religion, on which this ar ticle will concentrate.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

At its most extensive, ' politeness ' described national characters, entire civilizations, epochs of human history.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

To explain this, the new meta-histories turn to the cultures that define civilizations.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Explanations for the rise and fall of past civilizations are often formulated within a deterministic framework.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Individuals bearing the stated characteristics of 'modernity' can be found in most contemporary civilizations and have obviously existed in the past.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Cultures and civilizations seem to oppose one another just as contrasting ideologies once did.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Moreover, their analysis does not examine differences in the levels of support within specific civilizations.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Only great inventions have made it possible for civilizations to keep from sliding back into cycles of repetition.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

We can open up the question of why science should have taken such different for ms in different ancient civilizations.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The essence of this technological development is visible in the remarkable difference between large-scale projects in the early modern period and in ancient urban civilizations.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

A civilization's pattern languages are often synonymous with its technical and cultural heritage.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Information disseminated by interlopers, working on local suspicions, bred misconceptions-a catalyst that accelerated and intensified the collision of civilizations.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

There is a strong likelihood that other advanced civilizations would progress through the same application of uranium.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

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These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with civilization

civilization

These are words often used in combination with civilization.

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advanced civilization

The fact that they take part in the election of the four communes does not confer upon them a more advanced civilization.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

alien civilization

First, we must calculate the probability of receiving a signal from exactly one alien civilization.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

ancient civilization

Cultivation of crops, hunting, social life, religion and politics of that ancient civilization are topics of the exhibition.

From

Wikipedia

This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.

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What is the pronunciation of civilization?

B2,C1

Translations of civilization

in Chinese (Traditional)

文明社會, （特定時期特定社會或國家的）文明，文化, 文明世界，舒適的生活環境…

Meaning of civilization in English

civilization noun (DEVELOPED SOCIETY)

civilization noun (PROCESS)

civilization | American Dictionary

Examples of civilization

Collocations with civilization

civilization

Translations of civilization

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