social ladder
4
3.7
- noun
:
escalera social
- Many of its members are willing to integrate and try to climb Europe's steep social ladder.
- climb the social ladder
- rungs of the social ladder
- bottom of the social ladder
He had one wife, one friend, the king, and one studio, the palace, and spent his whole life climbing the social ladder.
- He had one wife, one friend, the king, and one studio, the palace, and spent his whole life climbing the social ladder.
Examples
-
"The higher a man stands on the social ladder, the greater the number of people he is connected with."
-
As the Irish occupied one of the bottom rungs of the Victorian social ladder, unemployment and migratory employment were among their burdens of existence.
Academic text (1992) -
"The higher a man stands on the social ladder the greater the number..."
-
It's one rank lower on the social ladder.
-
To be in analysis and to finally become an analyst now represent steps up the social ladder.
Academic text (1990) -
The possibility of higher education is actually there, but the likelihood of moving up the social ladder becomes significantly more difficult as resources such as financial assistance are not equally shared.
Academic text (2018) -
Joseph and Fanny move up the social ladder because the squire takes responsibility for them and shares the family fortune.
Academic text (2007) -
A progressively larger proportion of Irish Protestant household heads occupied the higher rungs of the social ladder as time wore on.
Academic text (2003) -
Modern Islamic tolerance is exemplified by the numerous cases of Christians who have ascended the social ladder and who have occupied important administrative positions, as shown in the essay.
Academic text (2003) -
Penny took a big step up the social ladder when she married Sean.
Synonyms
102
3.2
A series of levels people move through to reach higher jobs
98
5.8
A system that puts people and things in order by rank or power
13
4.2
How people in a group are arranged by who has more power or status
3
7.9
The division of people into classes with different wealth and power
1
4.6
The way a society is divided into groups by money, job, or social position
1
7.4
A way a society ranks people by money, education, and work
How High
258
4.7
4
3.7
516
2.0
69
2.8
- Specialized
19
5.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines 'social' (relating to society) with 'ladder' (a set of rungs you climb), so the idea of a hierarchy of social status that one can move up or down is directly inferable from the constituents. The ladder-as-hierarchy metaphor is common in English and other languages (e.g. 'climb the ladder'), so a B1 learner who knows both words would very likely understand this meaning.
Etymology
Social ladder uses the image of a ladder to show where people stand in society. Imagine people on different rungs: to 'climb' the ladder is to 'move up' to higher status and to go down a rung is to lose status, so social ladder means a person's place or level in society.