superorganic

American

[soo-per-awr-gan-ik] / ˌsu pər ɔrˈgæn ɪk /

adjective

Sociology, Anthropology.

of or relating to the structure of cultural elements within society conceived as independent of and superior to the individual members of society.

superorganic British

/ ˌsuːpərɔːˈɡænɪk /

adjective

sociol (no longer widely used) relating to those aspects of a culture that are conceived as being superior to the individual members of the society

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Origin of superorganic

super- + organic

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.

See Examples For:

superorganic

Competition and combination are two forms of life association which alternate through the whole organic and superorganic domains.

From Folkways A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals by William Graham Sumner

For if there were a passage from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous, the more heterogeneous the products—inorganic, organic, and superorganic, as I learnt to call them—the stronger the evidence for the law.

From Spencer's Philosophy of Science The Herbert Spencer Lecture Delivered at the Museum 7 November, 1913 by C. Lloyd (Conwy Lloyd) Morgan

What one seeks to know is how those specific kinds of relatedness which characterize the successive phases of evolutionary progress, inorganic, organic, and superorganic, differ from one another and how they are connected.

From Spencer's Philosophy of Science The Herbert Spencer Lecture Delivered at the Museum 7 November, 1913 by C. Lloyd (Conwy Lloyd) Morgan

They belong to a superorganic system of relations, conventions, and institutional arrangements.

From Folkways A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals by William Graham Sumner

There is here, it may be said, no special reference to the organic and the superorganic.

From Spencer's Philosophy of Science The Herbert Spencer Lecture Delivered at the Museum 7 November, 1913 by C. Lloyd (Conwy Lloyd) Morgan

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023