Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To impress (something) upon the mind of another by frequent instruction or repetition; instill.
  • transitive verb To teach (others) by frequent instruction or repetition; indoctrinate.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To impress by frequent admonitions, or by forcible statement or argument; enforce or stamp upon the mind.
  • Synonyms Ingraft, Instil, etc. See implant.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To teach and impress by frequent repetitions or admonitions; to urge on the mind.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To teach by repeated instruction.
  • verb transitive To induce understanding or a particular sentiment in a person or persons.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb teach and impress by frequent repetitions or admonitions

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin inculcāre, inculcāt-, to force upon : in-, on; see in– + calcāre, to trample (from calx, calc-, heel).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From inculcātus, perfect passive participle of inculcō ("impress upon, force upon"), from in + calcō ("tread upon, trample"), from calx ("heel").

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Examples

Comments

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  • how can you not love this word? it is has the warmth and smell of an all day sunday dinner, but for education.

    October 29, 2007

  • I read inculcate in a textbook and didn't know what it meant, but loved it anyway because it sounded like milk & honey - I walked around dropping it into sentences here and there, because yeah - it sounds like a smell of an all-day Sunday dinner, so says jimtoole. Then one day a cruel friend inculcated me into the true meaning of inculcate and I was crushed. It seriously has a discrepancy between how cool it sounds and how cool it is.

    November 29, 2007

  • Now I'm curious what Weirdnet will say about the word imbued. Guess there's only one way to find out.

    November 29, 2007

  • WeirdNet is silent on imbued, but weirdly normal on imbue.

    November 29, 2007

  • There's no escaping it--WeirdNet is just...bizarre.

    November 29, 2007

  • Nice etymology: from Latin "incalcare," stamp in, press upon, itself from "calcare," tread, so ultimately from "calx," heel, and therefore possibly cousin to "caliga," boot, and to the Roman Emperor Caligula (nickname meaning "little boot").

    September 27, 2010

  • Also a surprising etymology, because of the vowel change. The Old Latin rule for unstressed vowels would give incelc- from calc-. Then the dark l rounds and backs and raises the vowel (as in the set velle, volo, vult).

    September 28, 2010