culture

/ˈkʌlt͡ʃə/

//ˈkʌlt͡ʃə// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"culture" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“culture” has 10 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #987. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#987
frequency rank, English
5,599
“C” headwords
10
tracked misspellings
4
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The arts, customs, lifestyles, background, and habits that characterize humankind, or a particular society or nation.

Corpus desk

Index EN-culture · culture · English

culture · rank #987 · 10 variants · 4 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #987
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 4 pairs
  • VAR-MID 10 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,599
  • PHOTO-FINISH boys

Nearest frequency peer: boys (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “culture”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “culture” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

culture vs cultured
88% similar
culture vs capture
71% similar
culture vs couture
71% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for culture
PropertyValue
Headwordculture
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈkʌlt͡ʃə/
Letters7
Frequency rank#987
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs4
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “culture”

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).culturelands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Same rarity band neighbours include “boys” (#986), “allowed” (#985), “fans” (#989). Among 5,599 “C” headwords, “culture” is #987. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 10 spelling variants around culture (IPA /ˈkʌlt͡ʃə/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #987 among 5,599 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 11 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for culture, with forms such as "cculture", "cluture", and "cullture". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "cultured", "capture", "couture", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle French culture (“cultivation; culture”), from Latin cultūra (“cultivation; culture”), from cultus, perfect passive participle of colō (“till, cultivate, to grow, worship”) (related to colōnus and colōnia), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to mo… The correct English form is culture, spelled C-U-L-T-U-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    The arts, customs, lifestyles, background, and habits that characterize humankind, or a particular society or nation.
  2. 2
    The beliefs, values, behaviour, and material objects that constitute a people's way of life.
  3. 3
    The conventional conducts and ideologies of a community; the system comprising the accepted norms and values of a society.
  4. 4
    Any knowledge passed from one generation to the next, not necessarily with respect to human beings.
  5. 5
    Cultivation.
  6. 6
    The process of growing a bacterial or other biological entity in an artificial medium.
  7. 7
    The growth thus produced.
  8. 8
    A group of bacteria.
  9. 9
    The details on a map that do not represent natural features of the area delineated, such as names and the symbols for towns, roads, meridians, and parallels.
  10. 10
    Ellipsis of archaeological culture (“recurring assemblage of artifacts from a specific time and place that may constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society”).
  11. 11
    Ethnicity, race (and its associated arts, customs, etc.)

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how culture appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Castration of bulls was a socialization process that turned a bull into an ox; in this transformation something wild became something very useful; nature became culture.
  2. Such differences of history and culture have lingering consequences. Almost all the corn and soyabeans grown in America are genetically modified. GM crops are barely tolerated in the European Union. Both America and Europe offer farmers indefensible subsidies, but with different motives.

Etymology

From Middle French culture (“cultivation; culture”), from Latin cultūra (“cultivation; culture”), from cultus, perfect passive participle of colō (“till, cultivate, to grow, worship”) (related to colōnus and colōnia), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to move; to turn (around)”).

This word in other languages

cultura(Español)culture(Français)Kultur(Deutsch)cultura(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • cculture
  • cluture
  • cullture
  • cultrue
  • cultture
  • cultuer
  • culturre
  • culutre
  • cutlure
  • uclture

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of culture - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

cculture1cluture2cullture1cultrue2cultture1cultuer2culturre1culutre2
Edit distance from "culture"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "culture"?
"culture" is spelled C-U-L-T-U-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈkʌlt͡ʃə/.
What does "culture" mean?
As a noun, "culture" means: The arts, customs, lifestyles, background, and habits that characterize humankind, or a particular society or nation.
What words are commonly confused with "culture"?
"culture" is commonly confused with "cultured", "capture", "couture". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "culture"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "culture" is /ˈkʌlt͡ʃə/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "culture"?
From Middle French culture (“cultivation; culture”), from Latin cultūra (“cultivation; culture”), from cultus, perfect passive participle of colō (“till, cultivate, to grow, worship”) (related to colōnus and colōnia), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷe... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "culture", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

allowed#985married#994officer#995respect#999

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (10 here; floor ≥5).

growth10 variantslimited10 variantsfollowed10 variantscreated10 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list