cultivate ˌkʌltəˈveɪt verb
1. adapt something wild to the environment
2. prepare for crops
3. foster the growth of
4. teach or refine to be discriminative in taste or judgment
The word cultivate has appeared in 356 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Jan. 24 in “Cold Comfort,” by Melissa Kirsch:
Kari Leibowitz, a psychologist who moved north of the Arctic Circle to study how people thrive there during winter, wrote in The Times in 2020 that the secret is a “positive wintertime mind-set.” It’s possible, she found, to cultivate this, even if you’ve always associated the season with dread.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word cultivate in a sentence?
Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.
If you want a better idea of how cultivate can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com. You can also visit this guide to learn how to use IPA symbols to show how different words are pronounced.
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Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.
The Word of the Day is provided by Vocabulary.com. Learn more and see usage examples across a range of subjects in the Vocabulary.com Dictionary. See every Word of the Day in this column.
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