| / English Dictionary |
CIVILISATION
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The quality of excellence in thought and manners and taste
Example:
he is remembered for his generosity and civilization
Synonyms:
civilisation; civilization; refinement
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("civilisation" is a kind of...):
excellence (the quality of excelling; possessing good qualities in high degree)
Derivation:
civilise (teach or refine to be discriminative in taste or judgment)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A society in an advanced state of social development (e.g., with complex legal and political and religious organizations)
Example:
the people slowly progressed from barbarism to civilization
Synonyms:
civilisation; civilization
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Hypernyms ("civilisation" is a kind of...):
society (an extended social group having a distinctive cultural and economic organization)
Domain category:
government; political science; politics (the study of government of states and other political units)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "civilisation"):
Islam; Muslimism (the civilization of Muslims collectively which is governed by the Muslim religion)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A particular society at a particular time and place
Example:
early Mayan civilization
Synonyms:
civilisation; civilization; culture
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Hypernyms ("civilisation" is a kind of...):
society (an extended social group having a distinctive cultural and economic organization)
Meronyms (parts of "civilisation"):
subculture (a social group within a national culture that has distinctive patterns of behavior and beliefs)
Domain category:
archaeology; archeology (the branch of anthropology that studies prehistoric people and their cultures)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "civilisation"):
Aegean civilisation; Aegean civilization; Aegean culture (the prehistoric civilization on the islands in the Aegean sea and the surrounding countries)
Helladic civilisation; Helladic civilization; Helladic culture (the bronze-age culture of mainland Greece that flourished 2500-1100 BC)
Indus civilization (the bronze-age culture of the Indus valley that flourished from about 2600-1750 BC)
Minoan civilisation; Minoan civilization; Minoan culture (the bronze-age culture of Crete that flourished 3000-1100 BC)
Mycenaean civilisation; Mycenaean civilization; Mycenaean culture (the late bronze-age culture of Mycenae that flourished 1400-1100 BC)
Paleo-American culture; Paleo-Amerind culture; Paleo-Indian culture (the prehistoric culture of the earliest human inhabitants of North America and South America)
Western civilization; Western culture (the modern culture of western Europe and North America)
Sense 4
Meaning:
The social process whereby societies achieve an advanced stage of development and organization
Synonyms:
civilisation; civilization
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural processes
Hypernyms ("civilisation" is a kind of...):
social process (a process involved in the formation of groups of persons)
Derivation:
civilise (raise from a barbaric to a civilized state)
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