social unit

American  

noun

1. a person or a group of persons, as a family, functioning as a unit in society.

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Etymology

Origin of social unit

First recorded in 1870–75

Example Sentences

“It was really awful for me. We aren’t a big family, but we have our mishpachah,” — the Yiddish word for family or social unit — “and our traditions.”

From New York Times • Mar. 15, 2022

"A church, a school, a village hall, any sign of some social unit is what we look for."

From BBC • Nov. 10, 2017

At the Pacific Street brownstone, the smallest social unit is the floor.

From The New Yorker • May 16, 2016

This trend for inter-group pairs is significant because it has been assumed, both among human and non-human primates, that the observed social unit and the reproductive unit were identical.

From Scientific American • Dec. 10, 2013

The Ekumen could not appeal to these people as a social unit, a mobilizable entity: rather it must speak to their strong though undeveloped sense of humanity, of human unity.

From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin