social alienation

noun

a person's feeling of disconnection and/or isolation from a group – whether friends, family, or wider society – or another individual due to low degree of integration or common values

Meanings

nounsocial alienation (plural social alienations)

plural social alienations

  1. generalhuman sciencesa person's feeling of disconnection and/or isolation from a group – whether friends, family, or wider society – or another individual due to low degree of integration or common values
  2. Hegelian philosophypsychological state and objective process in which the self was a historical and social creation, which becomes alienated from itself via a perceived objective world, but can become de-alienated again when that world is seen as just another aspect of the self-consciousness, which may be achieved by self-sacrifice to the common good
Cite this entry
APA

social alienation. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/social%20alienation

MLA

“social alienation.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/social%20alienation. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “social alienation,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/social%20alienation.

Source: social alienation on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.