Entry Word: civilization

Function: noun

Meaning: 1 the way people live at a particular time and place <a study unit on the advanced civilization created by the Mayas over a thousand years ago>

Synonyms culture, life, lifestyle, society

Related Words customs, manners, mores, values; folklore, heritage, tradition

2 a high level of taste and enlightenment as a result of extensive intellectual training and exposure to the arts <by the 18th century Boston had reached a level of civilization sufficiently advanced to support a circle of portrait painters> — see culture 1