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• Social Darwinism
  Social Darwinism

  noun

  a 19th-century theory, inspired by Darwinism, by which the social order is accounted as the product of natural selection of those persons best suited to existing living conditions and in accord with which a position of laissez-faire is advocated.
• social Darwinism
  social Darwinism

  A theory arising in the late nineteenth century that the laws of evolution, which Charles Darwin had observed in nature, also apply to society. Social Darwinists argued that social progress resulted from conflicts in which the fittest or best adapted individuals, or entire societies, would prevail. It gave rise to the slogan “survival of the fittest.”

Social Darwinism

American  

[soh-shuhl dahr-wuh-niz-uhm] / ˈsoʊ ʃəl ˈdɑr wəˌnɪz əm /

Or social Darwinism

noun

Sociology.

1. a 19th-century theory, inspired by Darwinism, by which the social order is accounted as the product of natural selection of those persons best suited to existing living conditions and in accord with which a position of laissez-faire is advocated.

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social Darwinism Cultural  

1. A theory arising in the late nineteenth century that the laws of evolution, which Charles Darwin had observed in nature, also apply to society. Social Darwinists argued that social progress resulted from conflicts in which the fittest or best adapted individuals, or entire societies, would prevail. It gave rise to the slogan “survival of the fittest.”

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Other Word Forms

• Social Darwinist
  noun
• social Darwinist
  noun

Etymology

Origin of Social Darwinism

First recorded in 1885–90

Example Sentences

Social Darwinism was a bad idea in the 1900s.

From Salon • May 27, 2025

Social Darwinism, a pseudoscientific belief that some people were better equipped for survival than others, was advocated by British sociologist Herbert Spencer.

From Textbooks • Dec. 14, 2022

As California Supreme Court Justice Loren Miller explained in a 1966 book, the ruling “smuggled Social Darwinism into the Constitution.”

From Scientific American • Aug. 19, 2020

Since when has Liberty University embraced the teaching of Social Darwinism in Ethics 101?

From Washington Post • Mar. 30, 2020

It's like some horribly twisted form of Social Darwinism.

From "Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho" by Jon Katz