Definition of social distance in English:

social distance

Translate social distance into Spanish

noun

1Physical distance maintained between individuals in order to avoid catching or transmitting an infectious disease.
‘we paid attention to public health messages on social distance, hand washing, and face covering’
- ‘people coughing or sneezing should stay indoors or keep a social distance’
1. 1.1The physical distance typically maintained between individuals in social contexts.
  ‘in elevators, social distance is reduced’
2The perceived or desired degree of remoteness between a member of one social group and the members of another, as evidenced in the level of intimacy tolerated between them.
‘material differences provided members with a constant stimulus for social distance’
- ‘Both Sinhala and Tamil contain a range of linguistic markers for status as well as relative social distance and intimacy.’
- ‘The intimate social distance between the teacher and the students implies that the teacher showed her students she belonged to their community and to their culture.’
- ‘Thus, treatment and comparison students were roughly equivalent in their perceptions of social distance from their classmates with the exception of the preps and the jocks.’
- ‘Perhaps a conscious attempt to decrease the perceived social distance between interviewers and respondents would help to improve self report validity.’
- ‘The use of space in relation to social distance is a major feature of Libyan custom.’
- ‘It can lead to bitter divisions and increase the psychological and social distance between the haves and the have nots.’
- ‘The social distance between classes has traditionally been extreme, and peasants or workers were expected to show deference toward members of the political and landowning elite.’
- ‘The social distance between racial groups is not as great as other studies suggest it is.’
- ‘Questions in these surveys are generally used to obtain data on various topics, including stereotypes, social distance, intergroup contact, and discrimination.’
- ‘Gordon Allport argued that intergroup contact leads to increases in animosity and social distance, unless the contact fosters acquaintance and intergroup bonds.’
- ‘‘Going back 50,000 years, social distance from a group could lead to death and it still does for most infant mammals,’ Lieberman said.’
- ‘We believe that these objective characteristics can nonetheless serve as a useful proxy measure of social distance in telephone interviews.’
- ‘Can we infer, as a hypothesis, that the incidence of profanity probably increased with social distance from educated circles?’
- ‘The policy creates conditions that reinforce stereotypes, difference, and social distance.’
- ‘Whether by design or by chance, whatever social distance we'd started with rapidly vanished.’
- ‘Yet this alertness makes him observe the material world from very close quarters, whatever his social distance.’
- ‘Language is the principal means by which social distance is established and maintained.’
- ‘Their geographic isolation is matched by even greater social distance.’
- ‘For instance, do we see insanity as illness, or as an extreme form of social distance?’
- ‘The chief advantage inherent in the author's participant-observer role was that it minimized the social distance between her and other group members.’

Pronunciation

social distance

/ˌsōSH(ə)l ˈdist(ə)ns/ /ˌsoʊʃ(ə)l ˈdɪst(ə)ns/

intransitive verb

[no object]

Limit physical closeness and contact with other people, especially in order to avoid catching or transmitting an infectious disease.
- ‘she wore a mask and kept herself six feet apart from others in order to social distance’