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

People lost the ability to casually interact with others without considering the risk of infection and adopted new daily rituals such as masking and social distancing. —Livia Gershon, JSTOR Daily, 5 Sep. 2025

While lockdowns and other social distancing measures have since lifted, intimate, private settings remain a popular choice of location for fashion photographers, said Murray. —Megan Williams, CNN Money, 4 Sep. 2025

Police Chief Peter Newsham runs an outdoor roll call to maintain social distancing in Washington during the early days of the Covid pandemic on March 24, 2020. —Rich Schapiro, NBC news, 24 Aug. 2025

Hollyhand's age cohort faced a Democratic Party intent on curbing the pandemic with mask mandates, school closures and social distancing. —Alex J. Rouhandeh, MSNBC Newsweek, 20 Aug. 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