Noun

(uncountable) The quality or state of being competent, i.e. able or suitable for a general role.

* 2005 , Lies Sercu and Ewa Bandura, Foreign Language Teachers and Intercultural Competence: An International Investigation :

Teachers are now required to teach intercultural communicative competence .

(countable) The quality or state of being able or suitable for a particular task; the quality or state of being competent for a particular task.

* 1961 , National Council for Elementary Science (U.S.), Science Education :

What professional competences do science teachers need?

A sustainable income.

* Alexander Pope

Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, / Lie in three words — health, peace, and competence .

* 1811 , Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility , chapter 17

“money can only give happiness where there is nothing else to give it. Beyond a competence , it can afford no real satisfaction, as far as mere self is concerned.”

(countable) In law, the legal authority to deal with a matter.

That question is out with the competence of this court and must be taken to a higher court.

Noun

(en noun)

The arts, customs, and habits that characterize a particular society or nation.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-09-07, volume=408, issue=8852, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Farming as rocket science , passage=Such differences of history and culture have lingering consequences. Almost all the corn and soyabeans grown in America are genetically modified. GM crops are barely tolerated in the European Union. Both America and Europe offer farmers indefensible subsidies, but with different motives.}}

The beliefs, values, behaviour and material objects that constitute a people's way of life.

* {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April, author=(Jan Sapp)

, volume=100, issue=2, page=164, magazine=(American Scientist) , title= Race Finished , passage=Few concepts are as emotionally charged as that of race. The word conjures up a mixture of associations—culture , ethnicity, genetics, subjugation, exclusion and persecution.}}

(microbiology) The process of growing a bacterial or other biological entity in an artificial medium.

(anthropology) Any knowledge passed from one generation to the next, not necessarily with respect to human beings.

The collective noun for a group of bacteria.

(botany) Cultivation.

* http://counties.cce.cornell.edu/suffolk/grownet/flowers/sprgbulb.htm

The Culture of Spring-Flowering Bulbs

(computing) The language and peculiarities of a geographical location.

A culture is the combination of the language that you speak and the geographical location you belong to. It also includes the way you represent dates, times and currencies. ... Examples: en-UK, en-US, de-AT, fr-BE, etc.