social contract

noun

: an actual or hypothetical agreement among the members of an organized society or between a community and its ruler that defines and limits the rights and duties of each

Examples of social contract in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Its promise, embedded in the national social contract, is that oil wealth should deliver the best medicine for its citizens — and a premium experience for anyone else willing to pay. —Lara Setrakian, semafor.com, 10 Oct. 2025

Taipei’s conscript system, like South Korea’s, is under pressure, with social contract cracks and skills matrices not always matching operational need. —Kapil Kajal, Interesting Engineering, 8 Oct. 2025

Europe needs a new social contract, at least for future pensions. —Renaud Foucart, Time, 28 Sep. 2025

An act of violence so heinous as that which took Kruglov’s life marks a sharp break in that social contract unlike many, or any, other transgressions could. —Denver Nicks, Rolling Stone, 14 Sep. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1660, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for social contract

• overreact
• abstract
• attacked
• attract
• contact
• detract
• distract
• enact
• exact
• extract
• hijacked
• impact

Legal Definition

social contract

noun

so·​cial contract

: an actual or hypothetical agreement among individuals forming an organized society or between the community and the ruler that defines and limits the rights and duties of each