high society
- noun
- /haɪ səˈsaɪəti/
- So... is this your first exposure to high society?
- high-society matron
- high-society woman
- high-society circles
My client was, yeah, my clients were the high Society of America.
- My client was, yeah, my clients were the high Society of America.
- How have you infiltrated, like, high society?
- When you look at your story, high society, you know, women of power and you being a young, wet behind the ears man, it's not that dissimilar.
- So there was the, it was the, yeah, the high society.
- So you're it, you know, so Dark Rose is, is, you know, sort of on the out outside of a high society there.
Examples
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The high society and the celebrities.
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She always dreamed of attending a high society gala where the wealthy would showcase their opulence.
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Yeah, he really made it into high society.
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What do you know about high society?
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Here, someone like me can talk with people in high society.
Fiction book (1997) -
And she was desperate to be accepted by high society.
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Apple is like one of those high society people that, you know, speaks their own language and, you know, feels very comfortable around people like them.
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Want to tell the folks back home I'm movin' in high society.
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The wives of the super-rich ruled high society with an iron fist after the Civil War.
Blog text (20) -
Mixing together Hollywood and high society, Vanity Fair explored the concept of style with insight and wit.
Academic text (2017)
Synonyms
A small group of the most powerful or rich people in a society
Rich, fashionable people with social influence
A small group of rich, powerful families who inherit titles and wealth
A social group with the most money and power
People who have far more money than most others
A small group of the richest and most important people in society
Famous stylish people who go to glamorous events
People who have much more money than other people
A group of fashionable people in high society
People who are wealthy and fashionable and attend fancy parties and important social events
People in society who are important, respected, and have power
A fashionable group of people with polite manners and stylish clothes
Wealthy, powerful people who make major business or political decisions
Antonyms
How Elite
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'the wealthy, fashionable upper class' is directly derivable from 'high' (of superior rank/status) modifying 'society' (a social class), so a learner who knows both words can infer the phrase. This compositional pattern (e.g., 'high' = elevated/socially superior) is common across languages, making the expression immediately comprehensible to B1 learners.
Etymology
High society comes from the image of high people literally standing above others at grand parties or on balconies, so they seemed 'above' ordinary people. That's why high society now means the 'rich, fashionable, and influential' people in a community.