social construct

American  

[soh-shuhl kon-struhkt] / ˈsoʊ ʃəl ˈkɒn strʌkt /

noun

social constructs plural

1. a complex concept or practice shared by a society or group, not arising from any natural or innate source but built on the assumptions upheld, usually tacitly, by its members.

   The Green Party supports the EU in viewing disability as a social construct and recognizes the well-established link between poverty and disability.

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• social constructs
  plural

Etymology

Origin of social construct

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

One way to reconcile the cognitive dissonance is to accept that gender roles are a social construct and, actually, it’s okay if women want to be firefighters and men want to be manicurists.

From Salon • Aug. 15, 2025

Beatty’s cascading, relentless prose conjures a world in which the ridiculousness of race as a social construct leads to high absurdity.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 14, 2025

That kind of points to something that was unmeasured—something about being in this social construct, of being categorized as Black or Hispanic in the U.S., that is contributing to this difference.

From Scientific American • Jun. 29, 2023

While researchers say sex generally refers to physiological characteristics and gender is more a social construct, when it comes to federal civil rights law, they are essentially the same.

From Reuters • May 19, 2023

“Ah, yes. I know it looks that way, friend, but let me explain. It’s a funny story, actually. My father is white and my mother is black and race is a social construct, so...”

From "Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood" by Trevor Noah