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History vocabulary · Periods and Eras

Civilization

Meaning in history, with examples

/ˌsɪvəlaɪˈzeɪʃn/nounCore term

In history, civilization means: A complex society with cities, written records, organised government and specialised work, or the culture and way of life of a particular people or region.

In Turkish: uygarlık, medeniyet

How it is used

Common in textbooks and museums: ancient civilizations, the Indus Valley civilization, the cradle of civilization. Modern historians use it with care, because older writing often ranked peoples as civilized or uncivilized.

Example sentences

  1. Mesopotamia is often called the cradle of civilization.

  2. The museum has opened a new gallery on the civilizations of ancient Anatolia.

Common collocations

  • ancient civilizations
  • the cradle of civilization
  • Western civilization
  • the rise of civilization
  • ancientBelonging to the very distant past, especially to the period before the end of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century AD.
  • empireA large state or group of territories and peoples ruled by a single supreme authority, often an emperor or sultan, and usually built through conquest.
  • archaeologyThe study of the human past through the material remains people left behind, such as buildings, tools, pottery, bones and traces in the soil.
  • city-stateAn independent state made up of a city and the land around it, with its own government, laws and army, such as ancient Athens or Renaissance Venice.

More terms: Periods and Eras

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