Meanings
- uncountablehuman sciencesThe social assets of a person, such as education, intellect, style of speech or dress, etc. that promote social mobility.
[…]I had an excess of cultural capital and a lack of actual capital; […]
2020, Emily Segal, Mercury Retrograde, New York: Deluge Books, →ISBN2 more examples
If you like: if economic capital is what you have, cultural capital is what you know, social capital is whom you know. […] Unless educational resources make some attempt to reverse the flow of cultural capital transmitted in the home then the end result will be enhanced forms of cultural inequality.
2007, Tim Edwards, Cultural Theory, SAGE, →ISBN, page 265[Carl] Wilson tends to side with the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, who argues that taste is never disinterested: It’s a form of social currency, or “cultural capital,” that we use to stockpile prestige.
2007 December 13, Sam Anderson, “Taster’s Choice”, in New York
Origin
- Frenchcapital culturel
- Englishcultural capital
Calque of French capital culturel, coined by French sociologists Pierre Bourdieu and Jean-Claude Passeron (1970).
More words from French
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Mandarin 文化資本 /文化资本
- 文化資本 /文化资本assets
Czech kulturní kapitál
- kulturní kapitálassets
Finnish kulttuuripääoma, kulttuurinen pääoma
- kulttuuripääomaassets
- kulttuurinen pääomaassets
French capital culturel
- capital culturelassets
German kulturelles Kapital
- kulturelles Kapitalassets
Polish kapitał kulturowy
- kapitał kulturowyassets
Cite this entry
cultural capital. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cultural%20capital
“cultural capital.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cultural%20capital. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cultural capital,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cultural%20capital.
Source: cultural capital on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.