What does "societal" mean?

Of or pertaining to society or social groups, or to their activities, customs, etc.

What is a synonym for "societal"?

Common synonyms include: associated, civic, civil, collective, common, communal.

How do you pronounce "societal"?

Pronounced /[səˈsaɪ.ɪ.tɫ̩]/.

Societal

/[səˈsaɪ.ɪ.tɫ̩]/ adj

adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1
Of or pertaining to society or social groups, or to their activities, customs, etc.
"But his real legacy, which has touched each of us more than we will likely ever know, centers around a rather simple notion of spontaneous order of societal development."

Adjective

1
relating to human society and its members wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

associated civic civil collective common communal

Example

More examples

"The point of hipster subculture is to avoid conforming to societal norms."

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ- Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *sokʷéh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-ṓy Proto-Indo-European *sokʷh₂ṓy Proto-Indo-European *-yós Proto-Indo-European *sokʷyós Proto-Italic *sokjos Latin sokios Latin socius Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-ts Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ts Proto-Italic *-tāts Latin -tās Latin societāslbor. Old French societé Middle French societébor. English society Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālisbor. Old French -albor. ▲ Latin -ālis Old French -elbor. ▲ Latin -ālisbor. Middle English -al English -al English societal From society + -al.

Related phrases

social group

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.