Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having a highly developed society and culture.
  • adjective Showing evidence of moral and intellectual advancement; humane, ethical, and reasonable.
  • adjective Marked by refinement in taste and manners; cultured.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Reclaimed from savage life and manners; instructed in arts, learning, and civil manners; refined; cultivated.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Having a highly developed society or culture.
  • adjective Showing evidence of moral and intellectual advancement; humane, reasonable, ethical.
  • adjective Marked by refinement in taste and manners.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective having a high state of culture and development both social and technological
  • adjective marked by refinement in taste and manners

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Palestine was a civilized country, and the Hebrews were a great people; and I consider the precedent set by our blessed Lord is a command to be followed in all time, and that his appearance in Judea is tantamount to his saying to his apostles, 'go and preach me and my gospel to all _civilized_ people.'"

    Satanstoe James Fenimore Cooper 1820

  • Their communication with these wretches, who disgraced the term civilized, corrupted their morals, and did not improve their knowledge, taught them wants, without teaching them how to supply them, except by theft.

    The Moravians in Labrador Anonymous

  • He insists that people who want change should adopt what he calls a civilized and decent behavior and participate in parliamentary and presidential elections.

    Yemen's President Offers Reforms in Bid to Calm Growing Turmoil 2011

  • He insists that people who want change should adopt what he calls a civilized and decent behavior and participate in parliamentary and presidential elections.

    Yemen's President Offers Reforms in Bid to Calm Growing Turmoil 2011

  • They evidently hung out there for most of what we know as civilized history, yeah right, finally made the jump across the Atlantic at the end of the 19th Century, settled in Rochester, NY.

    Mama, Mama...I'm Obama...and so are you! 2008

  • I mean, you can't -- if you're going to be a nation in -- what we call a civilized nation and go around just sinking indiscriminately any ship that comes within any distance of international waters, I think you're going to have to fight America.

    A Storm in Flanders: The Ypres Salient, 1914-1918: Tragedy and Triumph on the Western Front 2002

  • AMANPOUR: Now while leaders and commentators and analysts are generally saying that a state of war has been declared against the United States and against what they call civilized humanity, they're saying that it is important Jack Straw's saying to keep a cool head.

    CNN Transcript Sep 12, 2001 2001

  • I may safely prophesy that if the time ever comes when those nations which we call civilized give over fighting, then even the red Indians may be persuaded to follow their example.

    At War with Pontiac The Totem of the Bear Kirk Munroe 1890

  • From these premises, I have seen fit to inquire into the relative merits of the three religions practiced by what we call the civilized nations, as they affect man morally, physically, and mentally.

    History of Circumcision from the Earliest Times to the Present Moral and Physical Reasons for its Performance Peter Charles Remondino 1886

  • Wall, Ralph had been in the unbroken silences of nature so long, that the clack, and crash, and clamor of what we call civilized life almost crazed him.

    Samantha Among the Brethren, Complete Marietta Holley 1881

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