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

In recent conversations with Hasidic Jewish leaders, Cuomo allegedly expressed regret for calling out the Hasidic community and their compliance with social distancing enforcement during the pandemic, according to The Forward, a news organization targeted toward an American Jewish audience. —Solcyré Burga, Time, 24 June 2025

Co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, which espoused allowing younger and healthier members of society develop natural immunity without lockdowns or social distancing. —Livi Stanford, Hartford Courant, 13 June 2025

The guidelines diverged from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations for in-person learning—six feet of social distancing, for example, could shrink down to three—and the A.A.P. was frank about the deficiencies and potential harms of remote learning. —Jessica Winter, New Yorker, 30 Apr. 2025

Trump’s new website also slams measures adopted by his predecessors, including social distancing, masking and lockdowns. —Michael Loria, USA Today, 19 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