Standard Lemma guide

societal

adj · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: [səˈsaɪ.ɪ.tɫ̩]
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Canada, General-American: [səˈsaɪ.ə.tɫ̩]
  • Canada, General-American: [səˈsaɪ.ə.ɾɫ̩]
  • Australian, New-Zealand: [səˈsɑe.ə.tɫ̩]
  • Australian, New-Zealand: [səˈsɑe.ə.ɾɫ̩]
  • CMU ARPABET: S AH0 S AY1 IH0 T AH0 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

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

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adjective

Meaning 2

relating to human society and its members

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • social institutions
  • societal evolution
  • societal forces
  • social legislation

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: social

Antonyms: none provided

History

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 English -al English societal From society + -al.

Across languages

Translations

20 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Czech: celospolečenský — societal
  • Danish: samfundsmæssig — societal
  • Dutch: maatschappelijk — societal
  • Estonian: ühiskondlik — societal
  • Finnish: yhteiskunnallinen — societal
  • French: sociétal — societal
  • Galician: social — societal
  • German: gesellschaftlich — societal
  • Irish: sochaíoch — societal
  • Italian: societario — societal
  • Lithuanian: visuomeninis — societal
  • Malayalam: സാമൂഹിക (sāmūhika) — societal
  • Malayalam: സാമൂഹികമായ (sāmūhikamāya) — societal
  • Norwegian Bokmål: samfunnsmessig — societal
  • Occitan: societau — societal
  • Polish: społeczny — societal
  • Spanish: societal — societal
  • Swedish: samhällelig — societal
  • Tagalog: ulnungin — societal
  • Turkish: toplumsal — societal
Real reading context

societal in complete knowledge articles