societal
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- antisocietal adjective
- antisocietally adverb
- intersocietal adjective
- nonsocietal adjective
- societally adverb
Etymology
Origin of societal
Explanation
Use the adjective societal to describe something that is related to society, like the societal changes that came about as a result of the civil rights movement. People living together in a community make up a society, and anything connected to that group can be described as societal. Societal pressures are expectations that affect the entire community, or specific parts of it, like the pressure to get married and have children. Society, which is at the root of societal, has been used since the 1500s to mean "friendly association with others." The meaning shifted in the next one hundred years to refer specifically to an orderly community of people.
Vocabulary lists containing societal
"Laws are not the only way to boost immunization”: an editorial from Nature
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“For the Herd’s Sake, Vaccinate" by Steven L. Weinreb
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Holi Festival
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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.
“Australia has an enormous opportunity to translate AI into real economic growth and societal benefit,” Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft, said in a statement.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 23, 2026
When researchers examine what actually increases birth rates in a way that improves public and societal health, it’s not encouraging teens and young adults to have babies.
From Salon • Apr. 18, 2026
“I’m currently working on an accessible life-coaching resource in the style of an ‘80s TV show, using YouTube videos, to show others they can defy the societal norm of being miserable,” he says.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 15, 2026
AI is a meaningful development with profound societal and economic implications.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 15, 2026
The myriad factors affecting innovativeness make the historian’s task paradoxically easier, by converting societal variation in innovativeness into essentially a random variable.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
