civilization

Meanings

Plural: civilizations

Noun

• a society in an advanced state of social development (e.g., with complex legal and political and religious organizations)
  • "the people slowly progressed from barbarism to civilization"
• the social process whereby societies achieve an advanced stage of development and organization
• a particular society at a particular time and place
  • "early Mayan civilization"
• the quality of excellence in thought and manners and taste
  • "he is remembered for his generosity and civilization"
• An organized culture encompassing many communities, often on the scale of a nation or a people; a stage or system of social, political, or technical development.
• Human society, particularly civil society.
• The act or process of civilizing or becoming civilized.
• The state or quality of being civilized.
• The act of rendering a criminal process civil.

Name

• Collectively, those people and places of the world considered to have a high standard of behavior and / or a high level of development. Commonly subjectively used by people of one society to exclusively refer to their society, or their elite sub-group, or a few associated societies, implying all others, in time or geography or status, as something less than civilised, as savages or barbarians. (Compare refinement, elitism, civilised society, the Civilised World.

Synonyms

acculturation, civilisation, culture, education, home, order, refinement, sphere, the land of the living

Antonyms

;, anecumene, wilderness, wilds

Related Words

civilize