civilized
adjective
Simple meaning
Having a high state of culture and development both social and technological.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sivuhlyzdSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsɪvəlaɪzd
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Having a high state of culture and development both social and technological
“Terrorist acts that shocked the civilized world.”
Having a highly developed society or culture; belonging to civilization.
Showing evidence of moral and intellectual advancement; humane, reasonable, ethical.
Marked by refinement in taste and manners.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Having a high state of culture and development both social and technological
Used this way, civilized is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“Terrorist acts that shocked the civilized world.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use civilized
- “Terrorist acts that shocked the civilized world.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A society in an advanced state of social development (e.g., with complex legal and political and religious organizations).
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.