Basic Details
Word: Cultivator
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: A person who grows crops, or a farm machine that breaks up and loosens the soil between rows of plants.
Synonyms: farmer, grower, tiller
How to Spell Cultivator
Syllables: cul - ti - va - tor
Tricky part: The word ends in or, not er, even though it sounds like the end of farmer. The vowel after cult is i.
Watch out for: cultivater, cultevator, cultivatar
Memory tip: A cultivator is often pulled by a tractor, and both words end in tor. Keep the pair together in your head.
Usage Examples
Example 1: The cultivator loosened the soil between the rows of maize.
Example 2: Small cultivators in Punjab often share one machine among three or four families.
Example 3: Raju borrowed a hand cultivator to weed his vegetable patch.
Fun Fact
In India's census, a cultivator is counted separately from an agricultural labourer: a cultivator works land they own or lease, while a labourer works on someone else's land for wages.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
The farmer hired a cultivater to break up the hard ground in the orchard before the monsoon rains arrived in the valley.
a) monsoon
b) cultivater
c) orchard
d) valley
Show answer
b) cultivater. A cultivator is a machine like a tractor or a generator, and all three end in or.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the letters in the sentence to form a meaningful word:
The old rotivlacut stood rusting in the corner of the barn.
a) circulator
b) cultivated
c) calculator
d) cultivator
Show answer
d) cultivator. The jumble ends up with an o and an r but no e or d, so cultivated is out, and calculator and circulator have no v.
Spell-o-Spell
Only one word in the list is spelt correctly. Choose the meaning of that word.
1. irrigasion 2. harvestor 3. cultivator 4. granery
a) a building where grain is stored
b) supplying land with water through channels
c) a person or machine that prepares land for crops
d) a machine that gathers ripe crops
Show answer
c) a person or machine that prepares land for crops. Irrigation ends in tion, harvester in er and granary in ary, which leaves cultivator as the one correct word.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. On a farm, a cultivator is mainly used to ____.
a) break up the soil
b) store the grain
c) milk the cows
d) pump the water
Show answer
a) break up the soil
2. A cultivator is most likely to grow ____.
a) marble
b) copper
c) glass
d) millet
Show answer
d) millet
