noun

• An individual, or a group or community, considered as a discrete constituent of a society or larger group.

  ‘Particularly in the countryside, the extended family is the primary social unit, as kin groups live together in relative isolation from other groups.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘The nuclear family is the basic social unit of Egyptian society.’
  • ‘In traditional society, family stability is considered key for maintaining the stability of society as a whole, since the family is the smallest social unit of the society.’
  • ‘Instead, the basic social unit was the extended family, consisting of a man and wife and their unmarried children, along with their married sons and their families.’
  • ‘Historically, the family has been the basic social unit of the community.’
  • ‘Territorial encounters can also serve to integrate individuals within their own social unit.’
  • ‘The family remains the basic social unit, more important than the individual, despite the accelerated evolution of Andorran society.’
  • ‘Specifically, arranged marriages take place in societies where the extended family is both the basic social unit, and the basic economic unit, (and often the basic political unit) of the culture.’
  • ‘Whether the family lives in an urban or rural setting, the extended family is the basic social unit.’
  • ‘In the authors' view, the family is the major social unit for emotional development in adolescents.’
  • ‘For many non-Western cultures, the family not the individual is regarded as the basic social unit.’
  • ‘In countries without a welfare system or social security system, the family bonds together not only as a social unit, but as an economic one as well.’
  • ‘In most areas of Nepal, the basic social unit in a village is the family, or paribar.’
  • ‘With the need to support larger, more stable social units came the intensification of the production of the most stable and storable resource available-maize.’
  • ‘Confucianism emphasizes the need to find one's place within the greater social order, and to be a responsible member of the social units to which one belongs.’
  • ‘In the army, the behavior of servicemen is more tightly regulated compared with other social units and institutions.’
  • ‘Without some form of recognized leadership and authority, social units are incapable of concerted action.’
  • ‘Clan and lineage systems are patrilineal and form the basis of Kanak social units for private land ownership.’
  • ‘The smallest social unit, or ‘love’ unit, is two people.’
  • ‘The difficulties created by a team approach and by other elements of the project were surmounted by the support, comfort, and connection of our social unit.’