monoculture

plural monocultures

1. countableuncountableagricultureThe cultivation of a single crop at a time.

   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.

   2023 September 30, Martha Gill, “When Taylor Swift reaps country-sized riches, other artists are squeezed out”, in The Observer, →ISSN

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   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.

   2024 May 4, John Naughton, “The internet is in decline – it needs rewilding”, in The Guardian

   Antonyms: polyculture

2. countableuncountableanthropologyA culture or society that lacks diversity; a society marked by monoculturalism.

   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.

   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

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   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.

   2023 September 27, Spencer Kornhaber, “The Weirdos Living Inside Our Phones”, in The Atlantic

   No one knew it at the time, but 2014 — more precisely, Ellen DeGeneres' star-studded selfie moment — marked the peak of a monoculture that no longer exists. The numbers show a long decay ever since.

   2026 April 18, Rick Porter, “The Last Time Everyone Watched the Same Thing”, in The Hollywood Reporter, retrieved 21 Apr 2026

3. countableuncountableA shared culture that is popular to the ordinary people.

present singular third person monocultures · participle present monoculturing · participle past monocultured · past monocultured

1. To cultivate such a crop