Which term refers to a group of people who live in a defined geographical area who interact with one another and who share a common culture?

According to sociologists, a society is a group of people with common territory, interaction, and culture. Social groups consist of two or more people who interact and identify with one another.

  • Territory: Most countries have formal boundaries and territory that the world recognizes as theirs. However, a society’s boundaries don’t have to be geopolitical borders, such as the one between the United States and Canada. Instead, members of a society, as well as nonmembers, must recognize particular land as belonging to that society.

    Example: The society of the Yanomamo has fluid but definable land boundaries. Located in a South American rain forest, Yanamamo territory extends along the border of Brazil and Venezuela. While outsiders would have a hard time determining where Yanomamo land begins and ends, the Yanomamo and their neighbors have no trouble discerning which land is theirs and which is not.

  • Interaction: Members of a society must come in contact with one another. If a group of people within a country has no regular contact with another group, those groups cannot be considered part of the same society. Geographic distance and language barriers can separate societies within a country.

    Example: Although Islam was practiced in both parts of the country, the residents of East Pakistan spoke Bengali, while the residents of West Pakistan spoke Urdu. Geographic distance, language differences, and other factors proved insurmountable. In 1971, the nation split into two countries, with West Pakistan assuming the name Pakistan and East Pakistan becoming Bangladesh. Within each newly formed society, people had a common culture, history, and language, and distance was no longer a factor.

  • Culture: People of the same society share aspects of their culture, such as language or beliefs. Culture refers to the language, values, beliefs, behavior, and material objects that constitute a people’s way of life. It is a defining element of society.

    Example: Some features of American culture are the English language, a democratic system of government, cuisine (such as hamburgers and corn on the cob), and a belief in individualism and freedom.

Pluralism

The United States is a society composed of many groups of people, some of whom originally belonged to other societies. Sociologists consider the United States a pluralistic society, meaning it is built of many groups. As societies modernize, they attract people from countries where there may be economic hardship, political unrest, or religious persecution. Since the industrialized countries of the West were the first to modernize, these countries tend to be more pluralistic than countries in other parts of the world.

Many people came to the United States between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. Fleeing poverty and religious persecution, these immigrants arrived in waves from Europe and Asia and helped create the pluralism that makes the United States unique.

Assimilation

Some practices that are common in other societies will inevitably offend or contradict the values and beliefs of the new society. Groups seeking to become part of a pluralistic society often have to give up many of their original traditions in order to fit in—a process known as assimilation.

Example: When people arrive in the United States from other countries, they most likely speak a foreign language. As they live here, they generally learn at least some English, and many become fluent. Their children are most likely bilingual, speaking English as well as the language of their parents. By the third generation, the language originally spoken by their grandparents is often lost.

In pluralistic societies, groups do not have to give up all of their former beliefs and practices. Many groups within a pluralistic society retain their ethnic traditions.

Example: Although Chinese immigrants started arriving in the United States 150 years ago, Chinese-American communities still follow some traditions, such as celebrating the Lunar New Year.

Equality

In a truly pluralistic society, no one group is officially considered more influential than another. In keeping with this belief, the United States does not, for example, put a legal quota on how many Italian Americans can vote in national elections, how many African Americans may run for public office, or how many Vietnamese Americans can live on a certain street. However, powerful informal mechanisms, such as prejudice and discrimination, work to keep many groups out of the political process or out of certain neighborhoods.

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[ kuh-myoo-ni-tee ]

/ kəˈmyu nɪ ti /

See synonyms for: community / communities on Thesaurus.com

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noun, plural com·mu·ni·ties.

a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.

a locality inhabited by such a group.

a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists: the business community;the community of scholars;diversity within a college community;London's Jewish and Muslim communities.

a group of associated nations sharing common interests or a common heritage: the community of Western Europe.

Ecclesiastical. a group of men or women leading a common life according to a rule.

Ecology. an assemblage of interacting populations occupying a given area.

joint possession, enjoyment, liability, etc.: community of property.

similarity; agreement; identity: community of interests.

the community, the public; society: the needs of the community.

See synonyms for community on Thesaurus.com

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First recorded in 1325–75; from Latin commūnitās, equivalent to commūni(s) “common” + -tās noun suffix; replacing Middle English comunete, from Middle French, from Latin as above; see common, -ty2;

1. Community, hamlet, village, town, city are terms for groups of people living in somewhat close association, and usually under common rules. Community is a general term, and town is often loosely applied. A commonly accepted set of connotations envisages hamlet as a small group, village as a somewhat larger one, town still larger, and city as very large. Size is, however, not the true basis of differentiation, but properly sets off only hamlet. Incorporation, or the absence of it, and the type of government determine the classification of the others.

com·mu·ni·tal, adjectivepro·com·mu·nity, adjective

communistic, Communist Manifesto, Communist Party, communitarian, communitas, community, community antenna television, community association, community card, community care, community center

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

A community is a social group whose members have something in common, such as a shared government, geographic location, culture, or heritage.

Community can also refer to the physical location where such a group lives. It can refer to a town, city, village, or other area with a formal government whose residents share a nationality or culture, as in A group of town citizens decided to clean up the litter in their community. 

Community can also refer to the people who live in this area, as in Filipe was able to raise money for the city’s homeless shelter with help from the community. 

More generally, community can refer to a group that shares some trait or quality that separates it from the wider population as in Tracy was excited to find that the Muslim community in her city often held free talks on being a Muslim American. 

Example: Ria entered politics to help improve the lives of the people in her community. 

The first records of the word community comes from around 1325. It comes from the Latin commūnitās, meaning “joint possession or use.” A community has something in common, such as a geographic location or a shared culture.

In terms of a specific location, community is a more general term than words like burrough, village, or city. When you refer to the community you live in, you could mean something as small as your neighborhood or as large as a metropolitan area.

The sense of community that refers to a group of people with shared traits or qualities is frequently used when people talk about demographics. You have probably heard of polls or studies of “the Hispanic community” or “the Christian community,” for example. You’ll find this usage in academics, politics, business, and similar fields.

The word community is common and is often used to refer to groups of people or the places where they live.

Is community used correctly in the following sentence?

The charity group raised money to help local communities impacted by hurricanes.

association, center, company, district, nation, neighborhood, people, public, society, state, colony, commonality, commonwealth, hamlet, locality, populace, residents, territory, turf, affinity

  • The community does not yet have adequate testing, contact tracing, or isolation.

  • Sky glow is a term that’s already in use in the light pollution community, so that’s not my favorite term.

  • She sought input from various community stakeholders, many of whom had been rankled by her appointment to lead the police division.

  • Organizations like his try to do outreach and help convert messaging into something that resonates with underrepresented communities, but they are stretched thin, especially with the coronavirus pandemic and recent racial justice movement.

  • She last wrote for Eater about the rise of community fridges across the country.

    Who Will Save the Food Timeline?|Dayna Evans|July 8, 2020|Eater

  • We have thousands of users who identify themselves as transgendered and they are welcome members of the Grindr community.

    Grindr’s Trans Dating Problem|David Levesley|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST

  • Some gay apps, like the newer Mister, have not subscribed to the community/tribe model.

    Grindr’s Trans Dating Problem|David Levesley|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST

  • What matters is being honest, humble, and a faithful and loyal friend, father and member of your community.

  • The need for increased community policing is more urgent than ever before.

    How to Solve the Policing Crisis|Keli Goff|January 5, 2015|DAILY BEAST

  • Marrying another Jew was not just a personal simcha (joy), but one for the community.

    My Week on Jewish Tinder|Emily Shire|January 5, 2015|DAILY BEAST

  • But hitherto, before these new ideas began to spread in our community, the mass of men and women definitely settled down.

    The Salvaging Of Civilisation|H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

  • I doubt if the modern community can afford to continue it; it certainly cannot afford to extend it very widely.

    The Salvaging Of Civilisation|H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

  • And could it not be extended from its present limited range until it reached practically the whole adolescent community?

    The Salvaging Of Civilisation|H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

  • It was not, however, through any of these artificial means that real relief was brought to the community.

    Readings in Money and Banking|Chester Arthur Phillips

  • In the community her father was the wealthiest man, having made his fortune in the growing of potatoes and fruit.

    The Homesteader|Oscar Micheaux

  1. the people living in one locality
  2. the locality in which they live
  3. (as modifier)community spirit

a group of people having cultural, religious, ethnic, or other characteristics in commonthe Protestant community

a group of nations having certain interests in common

the public in general; society

common ownership or participation

similarity or agreementcommunity of interests

(in Wales since 1974 and Scotland since 1975) the smallest unit of local government; a subdivision of a district

ecology a group of interdependent plants and animals inhabiting the same region and interacting with each other through food and other relationships

C14: from Latin commūnitās, from commūnis common

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

A group of organisms or populations living and interacting with one another in a particular environment. The organisms in a community affect each other's abundance, distribution, and evolutionary adaptation. Depending on how broadly one views the interaction between organisms, a community can be small and local, as in a pond or tree, or regional or global, as in a biome.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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