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culture war

Definition of Culture War

(noun) A political struggle caused by conflict between sets of social beliefs and cultural values.

Example of Culture War

Culture War Pronunciation

Pronunciation Usage Guide

Syllabification: cul·ture war

Audio Pronunciation

– American English
– British English

Phonetic Spelling

  • American English – /kUHl-chuhr wOR/
  • British English – /kUHl-chuh wAW/

International Phonetic Alphabet

  • American English – /ˈkʌlʧər wɔr/
  • British English – /ˈkʌlʧə wɔː/

Usage Notes

  • Plural: culture wars
  • Often written in the plural form: culture wars or “the culture wars.”

Additional Information

Related Terms


Works Consulted

Ferris, Kerry, and Jill Stein. 2010. The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology. 2nd ed. New York: Norton.

Henslin, James M. 2012. Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach. 10th ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Oxford University Press. (N.d.) Oxford Dictionaries. (https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/).

Schaefer, Richard. 2013. Sociology: A Brief Introduction. 10th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Scott, John, and Gordon Marshall. 2005. A Dictionary of Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press.

Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. (https://en.wikipedia.org/).

Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wiktionary, The Free Dictionary. Wikimedia Foundation. (http://en.wiktionary.org).

Cite the Definition of Culture War

ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “culture war.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved March 19, 2024 (https://sociologydictionary.org/culture-war/).

APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)

culture war. (2013). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/culture-war/

Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “culture war.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed March 19, 2024. https://sociologydictionary.org/culture-war/.

MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)

“culture war.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2013. Web. 19 Mar. 2024. <https://sociologydictionary.org/culture-war/>.