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Syllable division derived from spelling — this word is not in the pronouncing dictionary, so no phonetic transcription is shown rather than a guessed one.
civilisation is a noun meaning "the social process whereby societies achieve an advanced stage of development and organization". It carries 4 recorded senses.
the social process whereby societies achieve an advanced stage of development and organization
a particular society at a particular time and place
“early Mayan civilization”
archeology
a society in an advanced state of social development (e.g., with complex legal and political and religious organizations)
“the people slowly progressed from barbarism to civilization”
politics
the quality of excellence in thought and manners and taste
“a man of intellectual refinement”
“he is remembered for his generosity and civilization”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for civilisation come from Princeton University’s WordNet. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.