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

After the war, many Iranians hoped things would change and that the government would leverage the nationalistic rally around the flag to introduce a more tenable social contract with the populace. —Cnn Staff, CNN Money, 9 Jan. 2026

There’s a kind of social contract under which utilities operate essentially as monopolies to provide a public service and in exchange are regulated. —Judith Kohler, Denver Post, 7 Jan. 2026

Underpinning these anxieties is a strict social contract. —Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 26 Dec. 2025

Her Grimm retelling swaps glass slippers for broken noses, tapeworms, and eyelash surgery from hell — weaponizing the inevitability of a storybook to skewer beauty standards as a real social contract. —Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 19 Dec. 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