noun An organized culture encompassing many communities, often on the scale of a nation or a people; a stage or system of social, political, or technical development.
the Aztec civilization
noun Human society, particularly civil society.
A hermit doesn't much care for civilization.
noun The act or process of civilizing or becoming civilized.
The teacher's civilization of the child was no easy task.
noun The state or quality of being civilized.
He was a man of great civilization.
noun The act of rendering a criminal process civil.
proper noun Collectively, those people and places of the world considered to have a high standard of behavior and / or a high level of development. Commonly subjectively used by people of one society to exclusively refer to their society, or their elite sub-group, or a few associated societies, implying all others, in time or geography or status, as something less than civilised, as savages or barbarians. (Compare refinement, elitism, civilised society, the Civilised World.
Some of the tourists in the upcountry might have embarrassed themselves if they'd been capable of having any shame, whining that they couldn't wait to get back to civilization.