social construct

American  

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

noun

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.

---

Etymology

Origin of social construct

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

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

Some critics worry that such medical prescriptions will only perpetuate the notion of race as biological instead of a social construct.

From Salon • Feb. 3, 2024

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

Bed Bath is a story about calcification, sure, but it is also a story about money being a social construct and people spending it in ways that do not make sense.

From Slate • Apr. 24, 2023

But science as a system of knowledge is more than a social construct because it is successful, because it fits with reality.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton