civilisation

«civilisation» in Mova's school dictionary: a large, organised society with cities, government… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 3 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (civilisation, civilisations; US spelling civilization)

meaning for a pupil

1) A civilisation is a large, organised society with cities, government, writing, laws and culture, such as ancient Egypt or the Maya. tree →

2) Civilisation is the way of life of an advanced society, as in the history of civilisation. tree →

3) (informal) Civilisation can mean towns with comforts, as in back to civilisation after camping. tree →

sense in the lessons

In history lessons, pupils study early civilisations: Sumer, ancient Egypt, the Indus Valley, the Shang dynasty in China, ancient Greece, the Maya, the Aztecs and the Incas, and compare their farming, writing, beliefs and buildings. Many began by rivers. Historians now avoid calling some peoples more civilised than others.

examples

• Ancient Egypt was a great civilisation on the Nile. tree →
• The Maya civilisation built huge pyramids. tree →
• Many early civilisations grew up near rivers. tree →
• Writing helped civilisations keep records. tree →
• After a week of camping we were glad to be back in civilisation. tree →
• The Indus Valley civilisation had drains and toilets. tree →

note

UK spelling civilisation, US spelling civilization; both are correct. Countable for particular societies. Related: civil, civilised.

In the corpora

• Egypt is mostly desert, yet one of the greatest civilisations grew there, all thanks to one river, the Nile.
• Chinese civilisation grew along two great rivers, the Yellow River and the Yangtze.
• Egypt had a state earlier, but China's civilisation has gone on without stopping for an amazingly long time.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «civilisation» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.