What does bicultural mean?
Bicultural describes someone or something that combines or belongs to two distinct cultures. Most often applied to people — particularly children of immigrants or those raised in households drawing on two national or ethnic traditions — it signals genuine fluency in two sets of customs, values, and social norms, not merely exposure to them. The word can also describe institutions, policies, curricula, or environments deliberately built to serve and integrate two cultures. Bicultural carries a largely positive connotation in modern usage, associated with adaptability and cross-cultural competence, though it can also evoke the tensions of living between worlds. It is closely related to but distinct from bilingual: one may speak two languages without inhabiting two cultures, and vice versa. In countries such as New Zealand, bicultural has taken on a formal significance, describing official commitments to partnership between indigenous and settler populations.
adjectiveHaving or combining the characteristics of two distinct cultures; especially, belonging to or influenced by two cultural traditions at the same time.
- Of a person: raised in, or fully participating in, two different cultures, often through family heritage or immigration.
- Of a thing (organization, policy, environment): designed to serve, reflect, or integrate two cultures.
"Growing up with a Japanese mother and a Mexican father made her bicultural in every sense."
"As the child of immigrants, she navigated a bicultural life, switching between two sets of customs and expectations."
"The city's new school board adopted a bicultural curriculum honoring both English- and Māori-speaking communities."
You can learn a second language in a classroom — but being bicultural means two entire worlds live inside your head at once.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does bicultural come from?
Bicultural combines the prefix bi-, from Latin meaning 'two,' with 'cultural,' from Latin cultura, meaning cultivation or tending, which itself derives from the verb colere, 'to till or inhabit.' The compound emerged as a twentieth-century formation alongside related terms like multicultural and cross-cultural, gaining currency in sociology, psychology, and education as scholars studied immigrant adaptation and dual-heritage identities. It shares its Latin root with words such as cultivate, cult, colony, and culture itself.
Related word forms
How bicultural is actually used
The word is neutral to positive in connotation, often used approvingly in discussions of identity, education, and inclusion. In New Zealand, 'bicultural' has a specific political resonance referring to the relationship between Māori and Pākehā (European) New Zealanders, and is frequently paired with 'partnership' in official contexts. It typically appears attributively ('a bicultural upbringing') rather than predicatively.
Easily confused with bicultural
Bilingual refers to speaking two languages fluently, whereas bicultural refers to internalizing two cultures — a person can be either one without the other.
Biracial refers to having parents of two different races, while bicultural refers to participation in two cultures, which need not involve race.