CIVILIZED

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does civilized mean? 

• CIVILIZED (adjective)
  The adjective CIVILIZED has 2 senses:

1. having a high state of culture and development both social and technological

2. marked by refinement in taste and manners

  Familiarity information: CIVILIZED used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CIVILIZED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Having a high state of culture and development both social and technological

Synonyms:

civilised; civilized

Context example:

terrorist acts that shocked the civilized world

Similar:

advanced ((of societies) highly developed especially in technology or industry)

civil (of or in a condition of social order)

humane (showing evidence of moral and intellectual advancement)

Also:

educated (possessing an education (especially having more than average knowledge))

refined ((used of persons and their behavior) cultivated and genteel)

Antonym:

noncivilized (not having a high state of culture and social development)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Marked by refinement in taste and manners

Synonyms:

civilised; civilized; cultivated; cultured; genteel; polite

Context example:

polite society

Similar:

refined ((used of persons and their behavior) cultivated and genteel)

 Context examples 

Then she looked up and said, "I do not know where Kansas is, for I have never heard that country mentioned before. But tell me, is it a civilized country?"

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

A more civilized or more effeminate generation, however, had refused to be pent up in such a cellar, and the hall with its neighboring chambers had been added for their accommodation.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He was a civilized man, that was what he was, shoulder to shoulder, at dinner, with people he had read about in books.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Years have elapsed, since I had an opportunity of ocularly perusing the lineaments, now familiar to the imaginations of a considerable portion of the civilized world.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The youth of the race seemed burgeoning in me, over-civilized man that I was, and I lived for myself the old hunting days and forest nights of my remote and forgotten ancestry.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

It was a token that he was harking back through his own life to the lives of his forebears; for he was a civilized dog, an unduly civilized dog, and of his own experience knew no trap and so could not of himself fear it.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Very particularly would I thank Senhor Penalosa and other officials of the Brazilian Government for the special arrangements by which we were helped upon our way, and Senhor Pereira of Para, to whose forethought we owe the complete outfit for a decent appearance in the civilized world which we found ready for us at that town.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He added, how I had endeavoured to persuade him, that in my own and other countries, the Yahoos acted as the governing, rational animal, and held the Houyhnhnms in servitude; that he observed in me all the qualities of a Yahoo, only a little more civilized by some tincture of reason, which, however, was in a degree as far inferior to the Houyhnhnm race, as the Yahoos of their country were to me; that, among other things, I mentioned a custom we had of castrating Houyhnhnms when they were young, in order to render them tame; that the operation was easy and safe; that it was no shame to learn wisdom from brutes, as industry is taught by the ant, and building by the swallow (for so I translate the word lyhannh, although it be a much larger fowl); that this invention might be practised upon the younger Yahoos here, which besides rendering them tractable and fitter for use, would in an age put an end to the whole species, without destroying life; that in the mean time the Houyhnhnms should be exhorted to cultivate the breed of asses, which, as they are in all respects more valuable brutes, so they have this advantage, to be fit for service at five years old, which the others are not till twelve.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

That little boys and girls should be tormented, said Henry, is what no one at all acquainted with human nature in a civilized state can deny; but in behalf of our most distinguished historians, I must observe that they might well be offended at being supposed to have no higher aim, and that by their method and style, they are perfectly well qualified to torment readers of the most advanced reason and mature time of life.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

In the civilized countries I believe there are no witches left, nor wizards, nor sorceresses, nor magicians.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)