Sociopetal

//ˌsəʊ.si.ə(ʊ)ˈpiː.tl̩// adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of a place, etc.: involving the arrangement of a group of people so that each person can see and interact with the others.

    "Sociopetality is that quality which encourages, fosters and even enforces the development of stable interpersonal relationships such as are found in small, face-to-face groups. The tepee, the igloo, the Zulu kraal are examples of buildings that could be described as highly sociopetal."

Example

More examples

"Sociopetality is that quality which encourages, fosters and even enforces the development of stable interpersonal relationships such as are found in small, face-to-face groups. The tepee, the igloo, the Zulu kraal are examples of buildings that could be described as highly sociopetal."

Etymology

From socio- (prefix meaning ‘society’) + -petal (suffix meaning ‘travelling towards’), coined by the English psychiatrist Humphry Osmond (1917–2004) in 1957: see the quotation.

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