Cultivation

How to spell cultivation

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce cultivation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cultivation mean?

1. nounThe preparation and use of land for growing crops or plants.
2. nounThe deliberate development or fostering of a quality, skill, or relationship.

Cultivation in a sentence

• The rich valley soil is ideal for the cultivation of grapes.

• Her success owed much to the patient cultivation of client relationships.

• Government grants encouraged the cultivation of unused farmland.

• The academy prides itself on the cultivation of independent thinking.

Where does cultivation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin verb colere, which meant 'to till the soil', but also stretched to senses like 'to tend', 'to dwell in', and even 'to worship'. From colere came the Medieval Latin cultivare, 'to till or prepare land', and its noun cultivatio, describing the work of farming. English took the term in through French in the early 1600s, first for the literal tilling of ground and soon afterwards for the figurative growing of qualities, manners, and friendships. The same fertile root colere sprouted a whole family of familiar English words, including culture, agriculture, colony, and even cult. Remembering that cultivation shares its core with culture can help fix the central -tiv- and the standard -ation ending in the mind.

How the word is built

• cultiv- (from Latin cultivare: to till)
• -ation (noun of action)