societal
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
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.
The show was born during a period of turbulence, with societal friction over the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, the LGBTQ+ community and more.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
Big changes in American trade policy require “some sort of societal consensus,” said Doug Irwin, a trade historian at Dartmouth College.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
Oldenburg was pushing back against restrictive zoning and suburbanization, arguing that fully residential neighborhoods weakened the societal fabric of the United States.
From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026
"It's not just a technical solution. It's also a societal solution that we have to take."
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
Particularly since the civil rights legislation of the mid-1960s, the telltale signs of societal progress had finally taken root among black Americans.
From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt
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.
