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

For decades, companies designed employee benefits around a relatively stable social contract. —Nirit Cohen, Forbes.com, 13 May 2026

The challenge for today’s leaders is to preserve the features that made earlier models work: openness to global talent, flexible capital markets, and a social contract that views failure as information, not disgrace. —David H. Hsu, Fortune, 11 May 2026

Countries like Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, and to a significant extent Saudi Arabia depend on oil exports to fund their governments, and their social contracts with citizens. —Judah Taub, semafor.com, 30 Apr. 2026

What ultimately binds people to a city, or to a country, is a social contract that governs their lives. —Mina Al-Oraibi, Time, 14 Apr. 2026

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