social distancing

noun

medical

: the practice of maintaining a greater than usual physical distance (such as six feet or more) from other people or of avoiding direct contact with people or objects in public places during the outbreak of a contagious disease in order to minimize exposure and reduce the transmission of infection : physical distancing

San Francisco issued recommendations for social distancing on Friday, advising residents to stay home as much as possible and avoid congregating in large groups.

—Taryn Luna and Melody Gutierrez

Under a new "social distancing" strategy, handshaking could be discouraged, with other, less tactile forms of greeting taking its place.

—Rosa Silverman

The term social distancing may be foreign to some, but the concept is one often practiced during the flu season, said Dora Anne Mills, the state's former top health official and currently chief health improvement officer for MaineHealth.

—Gillian Graham

Examples of social distancing in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

There were new protocols to learn about social distancing, masking and doing temperature checks. —Jennifer Liu, CNBC, 6 May 2025

Of course, Zoom was the standard form of communication back in those days, just months into a COVID-19 pandemic that sent much of the world into lockdown and social distancing mode. —Jim Harrington, Mercury News, 5 May 2025

Flash forward, and the wedding has been postponed due to social distancing regulations. —Judith Martin, Sun Sentinel, 11 Apr. 2025

He’s got some history with SNL, with his initial debut canceled back in 2020 after a video surfaced of him breaking social distancing protocols at the height of the pandemic. —Ethan Millman, HollywoodReporter, 2 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

2003, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

social distancing

noun

: the practice of maintaining a greater than usual physical distance (as six feet) from other people or of avoiding direct contact with people or objects in public places during the outbreak of a contagious disease