monoculture

English

Etymology

From mono- +‎ culture.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈmɒnəˌkʌlt͡ʃə(ɹ)/, /ˈmɒnoʊˌkʌlt͡ʃə(ɹ)/

Noun

monoculture (countable and uncountable, plural monocultures)

  1. (agriculture) The cultivation of a single crop at a time.
    Antonym: polyculture
    • 2023 September 30, Martha Gill, “When Taylor Swift reaps country-sized riches, other artists are squeezed out”, in The Observer[1], →ISSN:
      Monocultures are bad for the environment; as we forced golden, waving wheat to take over the planet, other species faltered and failed, rather than rising on their merits.
    • 2024 May 4, John Naughton, “The internet is in decline – it needs rewilding”, in The Guardian[2]:
      As we Irish discovered in the great famine of 1845-49, monocultures are generally not a good idea and we abandon biodiversity at our peril. Farrell and Berjon make the same point about our online world: the internet has become an extractive and fragile monoculture.
  2. (anthropology) A culture or society that lacks diversity; a society marked by monoculturalism.
    • 2023 September 27, Spencer Kornhaber, “The Weirdos Living Inside Our Phones”, in The Atlantic[3]:
      It also isn’t going to be broadcast on TV networks that yearn to re-create the previous century’s monoculture. Our attention spans and tastes keep fracturing, and the ratings for late-night comedy keep declining.
    • 2025 January, Kristen Waggoner, quotee, “A New Direction for Religious Freedom”, in Decision: The Evangelical Voice for Today, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 13, column 1:
      We must end the collusive relationship between government, Big Tech, Big Finance and corporate media that creates an ideological monoculture eager to punish people for their beliefs.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

monoculture (third-person singular simple present monocultures, present participle monoculturing, simple past and past participle monocultured)

  1. To cultivate such a crop

Further reading

French

Etymology

From mono- +‎ culture.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /mɔ.no.kyl.tyʁ/
  • Audio:(file)

Noun

monoculture f (plural monocultures)

  1. monoculture
    Coordinate term: polyculture
    • 1955, Claude Lévi-Strauss, chapter VII, in Tristes Tropiques, Plon, published 1993, →ISBN, page 67; republished as John & Doreen Weightman, transl., Tristes Tropiques, Penguin, 2011, →ISBN:
      L'humanité s'installe dans la monoculture ; elle s'apprête à produire la civilisation en masse, comme la betterave.
      — Mankind has opted for monoculture; it is in the process of creating a mass civilization, as beetroot is grown in the mass.

Further reading

Italian

Noun

monoculture f

  1. plural of monocultura