Culture & History

Traditions, heritage, history, civilization, and collective memory.

189 words

# Culture & History

**Type:** Topic
**Words:** 189

## About
Traditions, heritage, history, civilization, and collective memory.

## Words by Level

### A1
- history - The study of past events, especially in human affairs.
- culture - The customs, beliefs, art, and way of life of a particular group or society.

### A2
- ancient - Belonging to a time very long ago in history.
- modern - Relating to the present time or recent times; not old.
- museum - A building where important objects of art, history, or science are kept and shown to the public.
- tradition - A custom or belief passed down from one generation to the next.
- custom - A traditional way of behaving or doing something that is common to a group or society.

### B1
- emperor - The ruler of an empire
- empire - A large group of countries or territories ruled by one government or person
- ceremony - A formal event held to mark an important occasion.
- civilization - A society that has reached an advanced stage of culture, organization, and development.
- cultural - Relating to the customs, beliefs, and way of life of a particular group or society.
- classical - Relating to traditional, serious music written by composers such as Mozart and Beethoven.
- historical - Connected with the past or with the study of history.
- Roman - relating to Rome, especially ancient Rome, its empire, people, or culture

### B2
- medieval - Relating to the Middle Ages, roughly from 500 to 1500 AD.
- heritage - The traditions, values, and culture that a country or family has had for many years and passes on to younger generations.
- rite - A formal ceremony, especially a religious one, done in a set way.
- ethnic - Relating to a group of people who share the same race, culture, language, or national background.
- Olympiad - A major competition modelled on the Olympic Games, often held every four years in a particular field such as maths or science.
- earl - a British or Irish nobleman ranking below a marquess and above a viscount, equivalent in rank to a count
- patrician - a member of the hereditary upper class in ancient Rome
- ogre - in folklore, a large and frightening humanoid monster that eats human beings, especially children
- knighthood - the rank, title, or dignity of a knight, especially an honor conferred by a British monarch
- khan - a title borne by rulers or high-ranking leaders among Turkic, Mongol, and other Central Asian peoples
- thanksgiving - the expression of gratitude, especially in a prayer or religious observance
- taboo - a social or cultural prohibition against discussing, using, or doing something

### C1
- archive - A collection of historical documents or records, or the place where they are kept.
- squire - historically, a young nobleman who attended a knight before becoming a knight himself
- centaur - in Greek mythology, a creature with a horse's body and a human head, arms, and torso
- triumphal - relating to, commemorating, or performed in celebration of a victory
- regalia - ceremonial emblems, ornaments, or objects that indicate royalty, office, or membership
- hobgoblin - a small, grotesque supernatural creature in folklore, often mischievous or frightening
- embalm - to preserve a dead body by treating it with chemicals, oils, or spices
- mummify - to preserve a dead body by drying, embalming, and wrapping it as a mummy
- cremate - to burn a dead body to ashes, usually as a funeral practice
- tepee - a portable conical dwelling traditionally made from poles and animal hides or canvas by Indigenous peoples of the North American Plains
- feudalism - the set of medieval social and political arrangements based on landholding and reciprocal obligations between lords and vassals
- hookah - a pipe in which smoke is drawn through water and then inhaled through a long flexible tube
- griffin - a mythical creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle
- commemoration - the act of formally remembering and honoring a person or event, often through a ceremony
- gladiator - in ancient Rome, a trained fighter who took part in public arena combats against other people or animals
- knightly - relating to knights, knighthood, or medieval chivalry
- totem pole - a tall carved and often painted wooden pole made by Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast of North America to represent family lineage, crests, histories, or important events
- chamberlain - an officer who manages the household of a monarch or noble, often with important ceremonial or administrative duties
- gothic - of a European architectural style marked by pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and high, elaborate structures
- beefeater - a person who eats beef, especially one characterized as eating a great deal of it

### C2
- surrealism - An early 20th-century art and literary movement that used dreamlike, fantastic images to express the unconscious mind.
- modernism - A movement in art, architecture, and literature in the early 20th century that broke deliberately with older styles.
- anachronism - a person, object, or detail placed in the wrong historical period
- villanage - Alternative form of villeinage.
- vassal - a person holding a fief
- annal - a record of an event or of the events of one year in a historical chronicle, now most often used in the plural annals
- citizeness - a woman who is a citizen; now rare except in historical contexts
- tumbril - historical: a cart used to carry condemned prisoners to execution, especially to the guillotine during the French Revolution
- curtsy - a formal gesture of greeting or respect made by bending the knees and lowering the body
- boyar - a member of the high hereditary aristocracy of medieval and early modern Russia or another Eastern European state
- heraldic - relating to heraldry, heralds, coats of arms, or their symbols and rules
- basilisk - a mythical serpent or dragon said to kill by its breath or gaze
- cortege - a formal or ceremonial procession, especially at a funeral, wedding, or royal occasion
- seraglio - the secluded living quarters reserved for wives and concubines in a Muslim household; a harem
- chevalier - a knight or chivalrous, courtly gentleman, especially in a historical or literary context
- paleolithic - relating to the Old Stone Age, the earliest and longest period of human prehistory
- courtier - a person who attends or serves a monarch at a royal court
- satyr - a male woodland spirit in ancient Greek mythology, associated with Dionysus and represented with both human and animal features
- festal - relating to a feast or festival, or having a joyful ceremonial character
- eunuch - a man who has been castrated
- suttee - the historical practice among some Hindu communities in South Asia in which a widow died, or was killed, on her husband's funeral pyre, sometimes under coercion
- flapper - a fashionable young woman of the 1920s who rejected older social conventions in her dress and behavior
- blazon - to display, describe, or proclaim something conspicuously or publicly
- obelisk - a tall, four-sided stone pillar that tapers to a pyramidal point, often erected as a monument
- sepulture - the act or ceremony of burying a dead person
- tumulus - a mound of earth or stones raised over a grave, especially a prehistoric burial mound
- crematorium - a building or facility where dead bodies are cremated
- prehistory - the period before written records exist for a society or region
- escutcheon - a shield-shaped surface on which a coat of arms is displayed, or the arms themselves
- serfdom - the condition of being a serf, bound to work on a lord's land and subject to the lord's authority
- castellan - the governor, keeper, or resident commander of a castle or fortified place
- cenotaph - a monument honoring a dead person or group whose remains are buried elsewhere or cannot be recovered
- praetorian - of or relating to the Praetorian Guard, the imperial bodyguard of ancient Rome
- unhistorical - not based on, supported by, or consistent with historical evidence or fact
- charnel house - historical: a building, chamber, or vault in which human bodies or bones are deposited
- sanjak - historical: an administrative district of the Ottoman Empire, usually a subdivision of an eyalet or vilayet
- seignior - historical: a feudal or manorial lord, especially in France or French colonial territories
- orientalist - historical or academic: a scholar of languages, literatures, histories, or cultures once grouped in Western scholarship as the Orient
- pageantry - elaborate, colorful ceremony and display, especially on a public or royal occasion
- heptarchy - historical: the traditional collective name for the seven principal Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of early medieval England
- agora - the central public meeting place and marketplace of an ancient Greek city
- praetor - an annually elected magistrate of the Roman Republic, especially one responsible for administering justice
- stadtholdership - historical: the office, rank, or period in office of a stadtholder in the Netherlands
- tribune - in ancient Rome, an elected official charged with protecting the interests and rights of the plebeians
- fairyland - the imaginary or legendary realm inhabited by fairies
- epitaph - an inscription on a grave or monument commemorating the person buried there
- Celtic - of or relating to the Celts or their cultures and traditions
- cestus - an ancient Greek or Roman fighting glove made of leather strips and sometimes weighted with metal
- courtesan - historical: a woman who had wealthy or powerful lovers or clients, often in exchange for financial support and with access to elite society
- creole - a natural language that developed in a contact community from elements of two or more languages and became a community's first language
- mummery - a ridiculous, showy, or insincere ceremony or performance
- fief - historical: land, revenue, or another right held from a feudal superior in return for allegiance and service
- philhellenic - admiring or supporting Greece, the Greeks, or Greek culture
- proconsul - in ancient Rome, a former consul or other magistrate given consular authority to govern a province or command an army
- cupbearer - historical: a trusted court official who poured and served wine or another drink to a ruler
- heraldry - the system, art, and study of coats of arms, including their design, description, inheritance, and regulation
- armorial - relating to, bearing, or displaying heraldic arms
- Jacobin - a member or supporter of the radical Jacobin Club during the French Revolution, or by extension a radical political reformer
- charivari - historical: a noisy mock serenade made with pots, pans, and other instruments, traditionally directed at newlyweds or a disapproved couple
- charnel - a place or repository where dead bodies or human bones are kept; a charnel house
- roturier - historical: a commoner, especially a person who belonged to neither the nobility nor the clergy in pre-Revolutionary France
- vassalage - historical: the condition, obligations, or tenure of a vassal under a feudal lord
- snuffbox - a small, often ornamental box used for carrying powdered tobacco taken through the nose
- totem - a natural being or object that serves as the emblem of a kinship group and may have a special spiritual relationship with it
- donna - an Italian title meaning lady, especially one applied to a woman of rank
- signora - an Italian title of respect or form of address for a woman, equivalent to Mrs. or madam
- handsel - a gift or token given at the beginning of a new year, enterprise, or situation as a sign of good luck
- chevron - a V-shaped or inverted-V-shaped mark, pattern, or structure
- couchant - heraldry: lying down with the body resting on the legs and the head raised
- dexter - heraldry: on or toward the bearer's right side of a shield, which appears on the viewer's left
- engrailed - heraldry: edged with a series of small inward-curving semicircles whose points face outward
- gules - heraldry: the color red, conventionally shown by vertical hatching in monochrome engraving
- catacomb - an underground network of passages and chambers with recesses for burying the dead
- nabob - dated, often disparaging: a very wealthy, powerful, or self-important person
- saltire - heraldry: an X-shaped charge formed by a diagonal cross extending across a shield or flag
- Neolithic - the final major phase of the Stone Age, associated in many regions with farming, permanent settlements, and polished stone tools
- sarcophagus - a stone coffin, often carved or decorated and displayed above ground
- boer - historical: a Dutch-speaking settler or farmer in southern Africa, especially an ancestor of the Afrikaner population
- Hottentot - a dated and derogatory colonial name for a Khoikhoi or Khoekhoe person of southern Africa
- megalithic - relating to megaliths, the prehistoric people who erected them, or the period in which such large-stone monuments were built
- fardel - archaic or literary: a bundle carried as a load; figuratively, a burden
- medievalism - admiration for, imitation of, or devotion to the ideas, institutions, art, or social forms of the Middle Ages
- leprechaun - a small solitary supernatural being in Irish folklore, traditionally portrayed as a shoemaker who guards hidden treasure
- dolmen - a prehistoric megalithic tomb formed from a large horizontal capstone supported by two or more upright stones, often originally covered by a mound
- catafalque - a raised, often decorated platform or framework on which a coffin rests during a funeral or lying in state
- Guanche - a member of the Indigenous people who inhabited Tenerife before the Castilian conquest, or, in broader historical use, a pre-Hispanic inhabitant of the Canary Islands
- tomahawk - a light axe or hatchet associated historically with Indigenous peoples of North America and later made in many specialized forms
- seigneur - historical: a feudal lord or nobleman in France or another French-speaking territory
- corroboree - an Aboriginal Australian ceremonial gathering that may include dance, song, music, storytelling, or ritual, with its precise form varying among communities
- bushman - dated, often capitalized: a member of one of the San peoples of southern Africa; San or a specific community name is generally preferred
- dayak - a member of any of numerous Indigenous peoples of Borneo collectively known as the Dayak
- fijian - a person from Fiji or of Fijian descent
- fuegian - relating to Tierra del Fuego, the archipelago at the southern end of South America
- Guana - a member of the Guana or Guana-speaking Indigenous peoples of the Gran Chaco and neighboring parts of South America
- Guarani - a member of any of several Indigenous Guarani peoples of South America
- Hun - a member of a nomadic confederation that entered Europe in late antiquity and reached its greatest power under Attila in the fifth century
- historicity - the quality of being historically real or authentic rather than legendary or invented
- archduke - a prince of the former ruling house of Austria, especially a son or male-line grandson of an emperor
- flambeau - A burning torch, especially one carried in procession.
- spittoon - A receptacle for spit (saliva); especially, one used by people using chewing tobacco or snuff.
- waddy - an Australian Aboriginal hardwood club used traditionally for hunting or fighting
- Seicento - the seventeenth century in Italian history and culture, especially in art, music, and literature
- doyen - a man who is the senior member of a group
- sixpenny - historical British: costing or worth sixpence; by extension, cheap or slight
- stripling - a juvenile between the onset of puberty and maturity
- thaumaturge - one who practices magic or sorcery
- anglophile - a person who strongly admires England or British culture and customs
- marchesa - an Italian marchioness; a woman who holds or is married to the holder of the rank of marquis
- marchese - an Italian nobleman of the rank equivalent to a marquis or marquess
- lich - archaic: a corpse or dead body, surviving especially in compounds such as lich-gate or lych-gate

### C2+
- acculturation - adoption of the cultural traits of another group
- patronage - support or custom given by a patron, or the power to grant appointments
- pogrom - an organized massacre, especially of an ethnic group
- babylonian - of ancient Babylon or its people, language, or culture
- classicism - adherence to the principles of ancient Greek and Roman art and culture
- conventionalism - adherence to convention or established custom
- decadence - moral or cultural decline marked by self-indulgence
- donjon - the great central tower or keep of a medieval castle
- ethnical - of or relating to ethnic groups or races; ethnic
- habitually - as a regular practice or custom
- hellenic - relating to ancient or modern Greece, its people, or culture
- imperially - in a manner befitting an emperor or empire; majestically
- nontraditional - not following tradition or convention
- tithing - the practice of paying a tithe; a historical group of ten households
- traditionalism - adherence to tradition, especially in opposition to change
- unconventionally - in a way that departs from accepted custom or practice
- through-stone - a flat horizontal tombstone or grave slab, especially in Scottish and northern English usage
- death-sark - a shirt or garment put on a dead body for burial; a shroud
- syssitia - historical communal meals or dining groups for male citizens and youths in ancient Greece, especially in Sparta and Crete
- logographer - an early ancient Greek prose writer who recorded genealogies, legends, local histories, or accounts of peoples and places
- wassailer - a person who carouses or drinks and celebrates noisily
- invected - heraldry: edged with a series of convex semicircles or arcs whose points face inward
- nombril - heraldry: the point midway between the center and the bottom of an escutcheon
- velarium - historical: a large retractable fabric awning spread over a Roman amphitheatre or theatre to shade spectators
- emancipist - historical Australian English: a transported convict who had completed the sentence or received a pardon
- polygenist - historical: an advocate of polygenism, the now-discredited doctrine that human populations or supposed races had separate origins and could constitute different species
- monogenist - historical: an advocate of monogenism, the view that all human populations share a single origin and belong to one species
- Anglo-Saxon - a member of the Germanic-speaking peoples who settled in England from the fifth century and whose kingdoms preceded Norman rule
- necropole - a cemetery, especially a large or ancient burial ground; a rare form of ‘necropolis’
- ephebus - a young man of ancient Greece, especially one undergoing civic or military training
- lapidation - the act of pelting with stones
- souteneur - A man who protects, and commonly compels, a prostitute of any gender and lives off the earnings; a pimp. Originally a Parisian term, but since adopted into other languages such as English

A1 (2)

A2 (5) Pro

B1 (8) Pro

B2 (12) Pro

C1 (20) Pro

C2 (110) Pro

C2+ (32) Pro

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