Standard Lemma guide

counterculture

name · noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈkaʊn.tə(ɹ)ˌkʌl.t͡ʃə(ɹ)/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: K AW1 N T ER0 K AH2 L CH ER0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
  • CMU ARPABET 2: K AW1 N ER0 K AH2 L CH ER0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

name

Meaning 1

A cultural movement most prominent in the 1960s and 1970s, associated with peace, free love and opposition to commercialism; the hippie movement.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to Western culture.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

a culture with lifestyles and values opposed to those of the established culture

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: culture

Narrower terms: flower power

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Proto-Indo-European *-teros Proto-Italic *-teros Proto-Italic *komterosder. Proto-Italic *komterād Latin contrāder. Old French contre- Anglo-Norman countre-bor. Middle English counter- English counter- Proto-Indo-European *kwelh1- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *kwélh1eti Proto-Italic *kwelō Latin colō Proto-Indo-European *-tew-? Proto-Indo-European *-r-eh2? Latin -tūra Latin cultūrader. Middle French cultureder. English culture English counterculture From counter- + culture.

Across languages

Translations

52 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Albanian: kundërkultura — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Arabic: ثقافة مضادة (taqafa muddada) — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Asturian: contracultura — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Basque: kontrakultura — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Belarusian: контркультура (kóntrkulʹtura) — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Bulgarian: контракултура (kontrakultura) — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Catalan: contracultura — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Chinese Mandarin: 反文化 (fǎnwénhuà) — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Czech: kontrakultura — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Danish: modkultur — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Dutch: tegencultuur — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Esperanto: kontraŭkulturo — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Esperanto: franĝa kulturo — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Estonian: vastandkultuur — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Finnish: vastakulttuuri — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • French: contreculture — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Galician: contracultura — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Georgian: კონტრკულტურა (ḳonṭrḳulṭura) — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • German: Gegenkultur — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Hungarian: ellenkultúra — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Icelandic: mótmenning — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Indonesian: pemberontakan budaya — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Irish: frithchultúr — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Italian: controcultura — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Japanese: カウンターカルチャー (kauntākaruchā) — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Kazakh: контрмәдениет (kontrmädeniet) — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Korean: 반문화 (banmunhwa) — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Kyrgyz: контрмаданият (kontrmadaniyat) — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Latvian: kontrkultūra — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Lithuanian: kontrkultūra — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Macedonian: контракултура (kontrakultura) — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Malay: budaya tentangan — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Malayalam: പ്രതിസംസ്കാരം (pratisaṁskāraṁ) — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Māori: ahurea ātete — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Norwegian Bokmål: motkultur — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: motkultur — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Persian: پادفرهنگ (pâdfarhang) — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Polish: kontrkultura — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Portuguese: contracultura — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Punjabi: ਕਾਉਂਟਰਕਲਚਰ (kāuṇṭarkalacar) — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Romanian: contracultură — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Russian: контркульту́ра (kontrkulʹtúra) — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Serbo-Croatian: контракулту́ра — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Serbo-Croatian: kontrakultúra — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Slovak: kontrakultúra — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Slovene: protikultura — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Spanish: contracultura — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Swedish: motkultur — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Tagalog: kontrakultura — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Thai: วัฒนธรรมต่อต้าน (wát-tá-ná-tam dtòr dtâan) — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Turkish: karşıkültür — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
  • Ukrainian: контркульту́ра (kontrkulʹtúra) — any culture whose values and lifestyles are opposed to those of the established mainstream culture, especially to western culture
Real reading context

counterculture in complete knowledge articles