How to Use societal in a Sentence

societal

adjective
  • The horror genre can be a handy metaphor for all sorts of societal ills.
    — Dallas News, 22 Feb. 2023
  • The last time a gadget raised these sorts of societal questions was in 2013 with Google Glass.
    — Geoffrey A. Fowler, Washington Post, 30 Jan. 2024
  • Vance said the issue is a societal one that has been ingrained for at least 50 years.
    — Breccan F. Thies, Washington Examiner, 6 Oct. 2023
  • Bass, in her speech, said there is societal cost to leaving people on the street.
    — Dakota Smith, Los Angeles Times, 16 Apr. 2024
  • The third looks at the tumbling global birthrate and hard societal choices ahead.
    — Simon Montlake, The Christian Science Monitor, 1 Apr. 2024
  • Learning to feel good about your body can be a long, hard slog, and so many of the obstacles that stand in the way are societal.
    — New York Times, 17 June 2022
  • But in spite of the emotions or societal pressures to keep silent, Schumer revealed that the PA spoke up right away.
    — William Earl, Variety, 2 May 2024
  • But societal norms are often in the eye of the beholder.
    — New York Times, 19 Nov. 2021
  • But the real drive to lose weight is the societal stigma around this organ.
    — Bethany Brookshire, Scientific American, 27 Mar. 2025
  • Gregg Popovich has been unafraid to call for societal change.
    — Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times, 24 May 2022
  • Goldfarb: Julia was a great way to talk about all these societal changes taking place in the ’60s.
    — Pat Saperstein, Variety, 21 Dec. 2023
  • But like many a flip statement that strikes a deep societal nerve, the toast comment took off for a reason.
    — Jeanna Smialek, New York Times, 2 Mar. 2024
  • Media outlets fanned the flames of fear with tales of bad trips and societal breakdown.
    — Milan Kordestani, Rolling Stone, 9 Aug. 2024
  • This will not solve any of the economic and societal problems that this study outlines.
    — Mira Cheng, CNN, 20 Mar. 2024
  • And there is a real societal cost to our missteps and failure.
    — Bryanna Carter, sun-sentinel.com, 4 Nov. 2021
  • In that sense, the current state of the EV market says a lot about the ways that businesses tend to respond to societal pressure.
    — Time, 6 Jan. 2022
  • There is no hiding from the societal shame of Pecola’s story.
    — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 14 Sep. 2023
  • Two others shared the award for creating a way to study these types of societal issues.
    — NBC News, 11 Oct. 2021
  • As with much of Perry’s work, the themes of the film resonate deeply with real-life struggles and societal issues.
    — Shelby Stewart, Essence, 20 Mar. 2025
  • In the last few years, racing is not just for a certain niche group of people, but a societal and cultural event.
    — Monique Wilson, Glamour, 31 Dec. 2024
  • The truth is that societal timelines are often more about commerce than care.
    — Cheryl Robinson, Forbes.com, 28 Mar. 2025
  • The city had the 23rd lowest societal cost of crime in the nation, according to the ranking by the financial website.
    — Eleanor Nash, Kansas City Star, 15 Jan. 2025
  • The societal make-up of Sweden has changed dramatically since the City Hall was built 100 years ago.
    — Laird Borrelli-Persson, Vogue, 14 Nov. 2023
  • But in Chicago, like the rest of the country, trees are tied to deeper societal problems involving race and class.
    — Joe Mahr, Chicago Tribune, 12 June 2022
  • There’s a whole host of societal and economic forces that conspire to maintain the status quo.
    — James Sullivan, BostonGlobe.com, 2 Mar. 2023
  • So don’t be pushed around by societal narratives of what the ultimate good looks like.
    — Sigal Samuel, Vox, 3 Nov. 2024
  • It shouldn’t be left to private companies alone to decide where the line is drawn on societal issues.
    — Jessica Guynn, USA TODAY, 26 Oct. 2021
  • Plenty of women deal with it, and there are a lot of societal standards for what is a beautiful size on a woman.
    — Sydney Bucksbaum, EW.com, 9 Nov. 2022
  • This aesthetic, pioneered by Harlem designer Dapper Dan in the ‘80s and ‘90s, initially faced its share of criticism (as trends started by Black folks tend to do in the face of white societal tastes and norms).
    — Jihan Forbes, Allure, 6 May 2025
  • For centuries, Black men and women have used dress to assert dignity and disrupt societal expectations.
    — Jailynn Taylor, Essence, 8 May 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'societal.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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