Cultivating

How to spell cultivating

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce cultivating

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cultivating mean?

1. verbActively working to grow, develop, or foster something, such as crops, skills, or relationships.

Cultivating in a sentence

• The farmer spent the spring cultivating the fields before planting.

• She is cultivating a strong network of contacts in the industry.

Where does cultivating come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb colere, which literally meant 'to till the soil, tend, or care for', and which also gave us 'culture', 'colony', and 'agriculture'. From colere came the Medieval Latin cultivare, meaning 'to till or prepare land for crops', built on the past participle stem cult-. English took the verb 'cultivate' in the early 1600s, originally in the strict farming sense of breaking and preparing ground to grow plants. From there the meaning broadened figuratively to mean nurturing or developing something carefully, whether a friendship, a skill, or a habit. The '-ate' ending marks the verb, and adding '-ing' gives the present participle 'cultivating'; note the single 't' and the 'v' before the suffix, which trip up writers who expect a doubled consonant.

How the word is built

• cult- (from colere: to till, tend)
• -iv-
• -ate (verb)
• -ing (present participle)