civilization.

1. A society with developed institutions, settlements, and organized cultural life.

2. The development or maintenance of institutions, arts, and practices supporting organized social life.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• ancient civilization
• urban civilization

On the page

The exhibition compared several ancient civilizations.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: Singular civilization; plural civilizations. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: analysis, explanation, evaluation. Commonness: moderately common.