cross-cultural

cross-cultural — adjective

1. involving interaction, communication, or exchange between people from different

1.adjectiveB2
Definition

involving interaction, communication, or exchange between people from different cultural backgrounds

Example

The university offers a cross-cultural programme where students from Taiwan and Mexico study together.

collocation: cross-cultural programme / cross-cultural training

Through a cross-cultural exchange at work, Priya learned how her Brazilian colleagues give feedback.

Common collocations
  • cross-cultural communication
  • cross-cultural differences
  • cross-cultural understanding
  • cross-cultural training
  • cross-cultural exchange
  • cross-cultural studies
  • cross-cultural marriage
  • cross-cultural team
  • cross-cultural approach
  • cross-cultural awareness
Synonyms
  • intercultural

    very similar; more common in academic writing about dialogue or competence

  • multicultural

    broader — describes coexistence of many cultures, not necessarily their interaction

  • interethnic

    narrower — focuses specifically on ethnic groups rather than cultures

Antonyms

Grammar Patterns

cross-cultural + noun

Usage Note

Typically used before a noun (e.g., cross-cultural communication, cross-cultural training). Less common in predicative position — 'the training is cross-cultural' sounds less natural than 'the cross-cultural training'.

Common Mistakes

The company offers a cross cultural workshop.
The company offers a cross-cultural workshop.
'cross-cultural' needs a hyphen when used as a compound adjective before a noun.
London is a very cross-cultural city.
London is a very multicultural city.
'cross-cultural' describes interaction between cultures; 'multicultural' describes a place where many cultures coexist.

Word family

  • culture
    nounA2
  • cultural
    adjectiveB1
  • cross-culturally
    adverbB2
  • intercultural
    adjectiveB2
  • multicultural
    adjectiveB1

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

Cross-cultural emphasises the interaction or comparison between two or more specific cultures, particularly in contexts such as communication, training, or exchange. Intercultural is very close in meaning but appears more often in academic or sociolinguistic writing — for example, intercultural competence or intercultural dialogue. Multicultural is broader: it describes a society, city, or space where many cultural groups coexist, without necessarily implying active interaction between them. A neighbourhood can be multicultural without its residents forming cross-cultural friendships. Interethnic is narrower, focusing on ethnic groups rather than the wider notion of cultural traditions. Between these options, choose cross-cultural for actual interaction or comparison between cultures, intercultural for the academic study of such interactions, multicultural for co-existence, and interethnic when the focus is specifically on ethnic groups.

interculturalmulticulturalinterethnic

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

  • truly cross-cultural
  • genuinely cross-cultural

Phrases

  • cross-cultural perspective
  • cross-cultural context

Etymology

LatinEnglish

Cross-cultural is a compound formed in English in the early 20th century by combining the prefix cross- (from Latin crux, meaning 'across, between') with cultural (from Latin cultura, 'cultivation, care'). The term was first used in anthropology and the social sciences to describe studies or comparisons that reached across different societies.