civilization

Meanings

1. 1
   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

2. 2
   noun

   a particular society at a particular time and place

   early Mayan civilization

3. 3
   noun

   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.

   the Aztec civilization

4. 4
   noun

   Human society, particularly civil society.

   A hermit doesn't much care for civilization.

5. 5
   noun

   The act or process of civilizing or becoming civilized.

   The teacher's civilization of the child was no easy task.

6. 6
   noun

   The state or quality of being civilized.

   He was a man of great civilization.

7. 7
   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.

   Near-synonym: ecumene (archaic)

8. 8
   noun

   the quality of excellence in thought and manners and taste

Etymology

Borrowed from French civilisation, equivalent to civilize + -ation or civil + -ization.