Society

society
    n 1: an extended social group having a distinctive cultural and
         economic organization
    2: a formal association of people with similar interests; "he
       joined a golf club"; "they formed a small lunch society";
       "men from the fraternal order will staff the soup kitchen
       today" [syn: {club}, {social club}, {society}, {guild},
       {gild}, {lodge}, {order}]
    3: the state of being with someone; "he missed their company";
       "he enjoyed the society of his friends" [syn: {company},
       {companionship}, {fellowship}, {society}]
    4: the fashionable elite [syn: {society}, {high society}, {beau
       monde}, {smart set}, {bon ton}]
    

Society \So*ci"e*ty\, n.; pl. {Societies}. [L. societas, fr.
   socius a companion: cf. F. soci['e]t['e]. See {Social}.]
   1. The relationship of men to one another when associated in
      any way; companionship; fellowship; company. "Her loved
      society." --Milton.
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            There is society where none intrudes
            By the deep sea, and music in its roar. --Byron.
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   2. Connection; participation; partnership. [R.]
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            The meanest of the people and such as have the least
            society with the acts and crimes of kings. --Jer.
                                                  Taylor.
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   3. A number of persons associated for any temporary or
      permanent object; an association for mutual or joint
      usefulness, pleasure, or profit; a social union; a
      partnership; as, a missionary society.
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   4. The persons, collectively considered, who live in any
      region or at any period; any community of individuals who
      are united together by a common bond of nearness or
      intercourse; those who recognize each other as associates,
      friends, and acquaintances.
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   5. Specifically, the more cultivated portion of any community
      in its social relations and influences; those who mutually
      give receive formal entertainments.
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   {Society of Jesus}. See {Jesuit}.

   {Society verses} [a translation of F. vers de soci['e]t['e]],
      the lightest kind of lyrical poetry; verses for the
      amusement of polite society.
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SOCIETY. A society is a number of persons united together by mutual consent, 
in order to deliberate, determine, and act jointly for some common purpose. 
     2. Societies are either incorporated and known to the law, or 
unincorporated, of which the law does not generally take notice. 
     3. By civil society is usually understood a state, (q.v.) a nation, 
(q.v.) or a body politic. (q.v.) Rutherf. Inst. c. 1 and 2. 
     4. In the civil law, by society is meant a partnership. Inst. 3, 26; 
Dig. 17, 2 Code, 4, 37. 
    

242 Moby Thesaurus words for "society":
      Bund, Everyman, John Doe, Public, Rochdale cooperative,
      Vanity Fair, academy, acculturation, affiliation, alliance, ashram,
      assemblage, assembly, association, associational, axis, band, bash,
      beau monde, beautiful people, belt, best people, biff, bloc, body,
      body politic, bop, box, branch, brethren, brotherhood, buffet,
      bust, cafe society, camaraderie, carriage trade, caste, chop,
      church, churchgoers, circle, citizenry, civilization, clan, class,
      clout, club, coalition, coalitional, college, colony, combination,
      combine, common man, common market, commonwealth, communal,
      commune, communion, community, community at large, companionship,
      company, complex, confederacy, confederation, confraternity,
      confrerie, congregation, consociation, consortship, constituency,
      consumer cooperative, cooperation, cooperative,
      cooperative society, corps, council, country club,
      cream of society, credit union, cultural community, cultural drift,
      culture, culture area, culture center, culture complex,
      culture conflict, culture contact, culture pattern, culture trait,
      customs union, denomination, division, drawing room, dwellers,
      economic class, economic community, elite, endogamous group,
      estate, ethnic group, ethos, everybody, everyman, everyone,
      everywoman, extended family, faction, family, fashionable society,
      federation, fellowship, flock, fold, folk, folks, folkways,
      fraternal order, fraternity, fraternization, free trade area,
      friendship, gang, general public, gens, gentry, good society,
      group, grouping, guild, habitancy, haut monde, high life,
      high society, in-crowd, inhabitants, institute, intercourse,
      jet set, jeunesse doree, key trait, kinship group, laity, laymen,
      league, linguistic community, machine, mankind, masses, membership,
      men, minyan, mob, moiety, monde, mores, nation, nationality,
      nonclerics, nonordained persons, nuclear family, offshoot, order,
      organization, organizational, parish, parishioners, partaking,
      participation, partnership, party, paste, people, people at large,
      people in general, people of fashion, persons, persuasion,
      phratria, phratry, phyle, polite society, political machine,
      polity, populace, population, public, punch, race, religious order,
      right people, ring, salon, schism, school, secret society, sect,
      sectarism, seculars, segment, settlement, sharing, sheep,
      sisterhood, slap, smack, smart set, smash, sociable, social,
      social class, social register, societe, sock, sodality, sorority,
      speech community, state, stock, strain, subcaste, system,
      the Four Hundred, the public, thwack, totem, trait, trait-complex,
      union, upper classes, upper crust, uppercut, variety, version,
      way of life, welt, whack, whole people, world, world of fashion,
      you and me