social work

noun

1. organized work directed toward the betterment of social conditions in the community, as by seeking to improve the condition of people in poverty, to promote the welfare of children, etc.

social work

noun

1. any of various social services designed to alleviate the conditions of the poor and aged and to increase the welfare of children

Derived Forms

• social worker, noun

Other Words From

• social worker noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of social work¹

First recorded in 1915–20

Example Sentences

The author, Dr. David Ribner, has a doctorate in social work and is an ordained Rabbi.

From The Daily Beast

Matul recently started looking at colleges and hopes to study social work or public policy when she saves up enough money.

From The Daily Beast

My father expected me to go to college, and he was thrilled when I earned my Master's of Social Work degree.

From The Daily Beast

Financial aid and a night job as an office cleaner carried me through, and at 21, I graduated with a degree in social work.

From The Daily Beast

At university, she studied social work—more useful in wartime, she thought, than pediatrics.

From The Daily Beast

Possibly no social work in America is more sanely constructive than that of the playground movement.

From Project Gutenberg

You see my only social work is to rejoice in the labors of others, while I live in luxurious remoteness from all turmoil.

From Project Gutenberg

The 350 Queen does all the social work, and she does it admirably.

From Project Gutenberg

It is in these local groups perhaps that some of the best experimental social work may be done.

From Project Gutenberg

The working woman is in fact beginning to show powers, hitherto unsuspected, of social work and political action.

From Project Gutenberg