Permaculture
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Any system of sustainable agriculture that renews natural resources and enriches local ecosystems. countable, uncountable
"in a world where there are competing ends for the use of natural resources, and particularly energy forms, the aim of permaculture is to create productive systems which are ecologically sound and ecologically viable, provide for their own […]"
- 2 The design, installation and maintenance of indefinitely sustainable human communities set in balanced ecologies, both urban and rural. countable, uncountable
Example
More examples"Permaculture is a branch of ecological design."
Etymology
Blend of permanent + agriculture, coined by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in 1978. For a long time Bill Mollison claimed to have copyrighted the word; this was never the case, as copyright law is not applicable to single words.
More for "permaculture"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.