cultivate
To grow plants, or to work at improving something.
cultivate in a sentence
- The class worked together to cultivate a vegetable patch behind the school.
- Monks once used this sunny hillside to cultivate grapes and herbs for the whole abbey.
Try an 11+ style question
Verbal reasoning papers often ask about a word like this.
Which word is closest in meaning to cultivate?
- Aignore
- Bneglect
- Cgrow
- Druin
Show the answer
C: grow. The other three mean the opposite of cultivate.
Which word is most nearly opposite in meaning to cultivate?
- Afarm
- Bneglect
- Ctend
- Dgrow
Show the answer
B: neglect. The other three mean nearly the same as cultivate.
Words that mean something similar
grow, farm, tend
Words that mean the opposite
neglect, ignore, ruin
More words about weather & nature
- dreary: Dull, grey and boring.
- drenched: Completely soaked with water.
- drought: A long time with little or no rain, when the land dries out.
- erode: To wear something away slowly, little by little.
- extinction: The dying out of a whole kind of animal or plant, so that none are left.
- famine: A time when there is not enough food for many people to eat.
- fertile: Able to grow plenty of healthy plants or crops.
- flourish: To grow strongly and do very well.
More words to explore
Sitting the 11+ in Kent, Medway or Buckinghamshire?
Plain-English guides to each test, from the councils’ own pages: Kent Test · Medway Test · Bucks Secondary Transfer Test