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.
“It was really awful for me. We aren’t a big family, but we have our mishpachah,” — the Yiddish word for family or social unit — “and our traditions.”
From New York Times ● Mar. 15, 2022
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
This trend for inter-group pairs is significant because it has been assumed, both among human and non-human primates, that the observed social unit and the reproductive unit were identical.
From Scientific American ● Dec. 10, 2013
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
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.