civilization

The word “civilization” means a large, organised society with its own culture, institutions, and level of development, often spanning a nation or region. In plain terms, a developed, organised society — or human society in general, especially the comforts and structure of city/modern life.

“Civilization” is pronounced sihv-ih-leye-ZAY-shuhn (/ˌsɪv.ə.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/ in IPA).

Here is “civilization” used in a sentence: “Historians study how ancient civilizations rose and fell.”

Words with a similar meaning to “civilization” include sphere.

“Civilization” is a noun.

The word “civilization” comes from French. From French civilisation, built from civilize plus -ation.

“Civilization” is a fairly common word in modern English, usually learned at around the B1 level.

“Civilization” has 2 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: a large, organised society with its own culture, institutions, and level of development, often spanning a nation or region.

Culture is the shared beliefs, customs, arts, and habits of any group, however small, while a civilization is a large, organised society with its own culture, institutions, and level of development. A single civilization can contain many cultures, and culture — unlike civilization — does not imply cities, formal institutions, or scale.

Both spellings are correct. Civilization is standard in American English and is also the spelling preferred by Oxford dictionaries in Britain, while civilisation is a common British variant widely used in the UK and Australia. Choose one form and keep it consistent throughout a piece of writing.

A society is any organised group of people living together, from a small community upward, while a civilization is a society on a large scale — typically spanning a nation or region — with developed institutions, culture, and infrastructure. All civilizations are societies, but only large, complex societies are usually called civilizations.

Dictionaries define a civilization as a large, organised society with its own culture, institutions, and level of development, often spanning a nation or region. Historians commonly point to features such as cities, government, writing or record-keeping, and shared cultural institutions when deciding whether to call a past society a civilization.