society

[suh-sahy-i-tee] /səˈsaɪ ɪ ti/
noun, plural societies.
1.
an organized group of persons associated together for religious, benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic, or other purposes.
2.
a body of individuals living as members of a community; community.
3.
the body of human beings generally, associated or viewed as members of a community:
the evolution of human society.
4.
a highly structured system of human organization for large-scale community living that normally furnishes protection, continuity, security, and a national identity for its members:
American society.
5.
such a system characterized by its dominant economic class or form:
middle-class society; industrial society.
6.
those with whom one has companionship.
7.
companionship; company:
to enjoy one's society.
8.
the social life of wealthy, prominent, or fashionable persons.
9.
the social class that comprises such persons.
10.
the condition of those living in companionship with others, or in a community, rather than in isolation.
11.
Biology. a closely integrated group of social organisms of the same species exhibiting division of labor.
12.
Ecclesiastical. an ecclesiastical society.
adjective
13.
of, pertaining to, or characteristic of elegant society:
a society photographer.
Origin
1525-35; < Middle French societe < Latin societās, equivalent to soci(us) partner, comrade + -etās, variant of -itās- -ity
Related forms
societyless, adjective
intersociety, adjective
nonsociety, noun, plural nonsocieties.
subsociety, noun, plural subsocieties.
undersociety, noun, plural undersocieties.
Synonyms
1. association, fellowship, fraternity, brotherhood, company. See circle. 7. fellowship.
Examples from the web for society
  • His first subjects were people he would see on the streets and rusty machinery that he felt captured society in decay.
  • The researchers found evidence that the more complex the society, the more developed those people's sense of fairness.
  • And these influence our genes, and this is not surprising-you might need different sorts of people in a stable society.
  • Imagine that a virus suddenly appears in our society that makes people sleep twelve, fourteen hours a day.
  • There is an irreducible minimum of people who present an active danger to society whenever they are released into it.
  • Yet the good times will come only to a privileged few, no more than a fortunate fifth of our society.
  • Some scholars speculate that there was a failed romance that caused his withdrawal from society.
  • It was really a matter of following the crowd, of copying how society as a whole viewed them.
  • We could remain a military super power while our society falls apart from within.
  • Pride obviously had something to do with this, but pride compounded by the imperatives of a dueling society.
British Dictionary definitions for society

society

/səˈsaɪətɪ/
noun (pl) -ties
1.
the totality of social relationships among organized groups of human beings or animals
2.
a system of human organizations generating distinctive cultural patterns and institutions and usually providing protection, security, continuity, and a national identity for its members
3.
such a system with reference to its mode of social and economic organization or its dominant class: middle-class society
4.
those with whom one has companionship
5.
an organized group of people associated for some specific purpose or on account of some common interest: a learned society
6.
  1. the privileged class of people in a community, esp as considered superior or fashionable
  2. (as modifier): a society woman
7.
the social life and intercourse of such people: to enter society as a debutante
8.
companionship; the fact or state of being together with someone else: I enjoy her society
9.
(ecology) a small community of plants within a larger association
Word Origin
C16: via Old French societé from Latin societās, from socius a comrade
Word Origin and History for society
n.

1530s, "companionship, friendly association with others," from Old French societe "company" (12c., Modern French société), from Latin societatem (nominative societas) "fellowship, association, alliance, union, community," from socius "companion" (see social (adj.)).

Meaning "group, club" is from 1540s, originally of associations of persons for some specific purpose. Meaning "people bound by neighborhood and intercourse aware of living together in an ordered community" is from 1630s. Sense of "the more cultivated part of any community" first recorded 1823, hence "fashionable people and their doings." The Society Islands were named 1769 by Cook on his third Pacific voyage in honor of the Royal Society, which financed his travels across the world to observe the transit of Venus.

Idioms and Phrases with society

society

see under mutual admiration society