social unit
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of social unit
First recorded in 1870–75
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In primary debates, men frequently introduce themselves as good fathers and grandfathers—in other words, as competent executives in the social unit of the family.
From Scientific American • Feb. 6, 2019
It has the nerve to suggest that the social unit is, by definition, self-menacing, and that the home is no longer a sanctuary but a crumbling fortress, under siege from within.
From The New Yorker • Jun. 8, 2018
"A church, a school, a village hall, any sign of some social unit is what we look for."
From BBC • Nov. 10, 2017
Acting together, they take down large prey “and can thrive as a social unit because they communicate on so many different levels.”
From New York Times • Jan. 5, 2012
The Ekumen could not appeal to these people as a social unit, a mobilizable entity: rather it must speak to their strong though undeveloped sense of humanity, of human unity.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
