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social status

social status

13 4.1
A person's place in society based on money, job, or family
  • noun
  • /ˈsoʊʃəl ˈsteɪtəs/
translation icon : posición social
  • In the parents' eyes, a married woman possesses a higher social status than a single one.
  • low social status
  • high social status
  • economic and social status

They lose their job, they go to jail, they lose social status, they lose money.

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Examples

  • In addition, both boys and girls stated that bullies had a higher social status than victims did.

    Academic text (2008)
  • Research on the relationship between social status and health has repeatedly demonstrated a positive correlation between them.

    Academic text (2012)
  • So he wanted social status and Facebook was his key to that.

  • So how do they treat people who have, let's say, less social status than they do?

  • But social status is preferred by women and men in every known culture.

  • They lose their job, they go to jail, they lose social status, they lose money.

  • At times, it is a conscious or unconscious attempt to acquire social status.

  • Anne Boleyn had always looked for a good marriage, because marriage is a way towards social status for women.

  • In the novel, a woman's condition depends on her citizenship, education, and social status.

    Academic text (2017)
  • In the parents' eyes, a married woman possesses a higher social status than a single one.

Synonyms

position
vssocial status
957 3.2

A person's job or rank in a group like a company

applies to overall social standing shaped by background and wealth
status
vssocial status
512 2.7

A person's social or professional position compared with others

defines the measured level by wealth, job, education, and family
rank
vssocial status
304 3.2

A position in a group that shows someone's status or authority

involves social origins and wealth as main shaping factors
station
vssocial status
  • Formal
95 6.3

A person's social rank or place in society

focuses on determining factors rather than the general social place
social class
vssocial status
11 3.0

A group of people with similar money, jobs, or education

focuses on where one person stands within that group hierarchy
socio-economic class
vssocial status
1 3.7

A group of people with similar income, job and education levels

refers instead to an individual's specific place in that hierarchy
social station
vssocial status
  • Formal
1 6.6

A person's place in a community based on wealth or rank

emphasizes factors like wealth and education that determine that place
social rank
vssocial status
1 3.8

A person's position in society based on wealth, family, or job

stresses the causes like family and wealth that create that level

How High

elite
258 4.7
upper class
15 3.4
social status
13 4.1
working class
69 2.8
outcast
5 5.1

Surface Forms

social status singular

Morphology

social + status

The meaning is directly compositional: 'social' (relating to society or community) modifies 'status' (a person's level or standing), yielding the idea of a person's position in a social hierarchy. This noun-noun combination is cross-linguistically common and follows transparent semantic composition, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can readily infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Social status comes from a simple picture: imagine people standing on different steps or levels, where social means 'in society' and status means 'standing' or place. So social status today means 'a person's position or rank in society'.