1. (n.) The relationship of men to one another when associated in any way; companionship; fellowship; company.

2. (n.) Connection; participation; partnership.

3. (n.) A number of persons associated for any temporary or permanent object; an association for mutual or joint usefulness, pleasure, or profit; a social union; a partnership; as, a missionary society.

4. (n.) The persons, collectively considered, who live in any region or at any period; any community of individuals who are united together by a common bond of nearness or intercourse; those who recognize each other as associates, friends, and acquaintances.

5. (n.) Specifically, the more cultivated portion of any community in its social relations and influences; those who mutually give receive formal entertainments.

Bund Everyman John Doe Public Rochdale cooperative Vanity Fair academy acculturation affiliation alliance ashram assemblage assembly association associational axis band bash beau monde beautiful people belt best people biff bloc body body politic bop box branch brethren brotherhood buffet bust cafe society camaraderie carriage trade caste chop church churchgoers circle citizenry civilization clan class clout club coalition coalitional college colony combination combine common man common market commonwealth communal commune communion community community at large companionship company complex confederacy confederation confraternity confrerie congregation consociation consortship constituency consumer cooperative cooperation cooperative cooperative society corps council country club cream of society credit union cultural community cultural drift culture culture area culture center culture complex culture conflict culture contact culture pattern culture trait customs union denomination division drawing room dwellers economic class economic community elite endogamous group estate ethnic group ethos everybody everyman everyone everywoman extended family faction family fashionable society federation fellowship flock fold folk folks folkways fraternal order fraternity fraternization free trade area friendship gang general public gens gentry good society group grouping guild habitancy haut monde high life high society in-crowd inhabitants institute intercourse jet set jeunesse doree key trait kinship group laity laymen league linguistic community machine mankind masses membership men minyan mob moiety monde mores nation nationality nonclerics nonordained persons nuclear family offshoot order organization organizational parish parishioners partaking participation partnership party paste people people at large people in general people of fashion persons persuasion phratria phratry phyle polite society political machine polity populace population public punch race religious order right people ring salon schism school secret society sect sectarism seculars segment settlement sharing sheep sisterhood slap smack smart set smash sociable social social class social register societe sock sodality sorority speech community state stock strain subcaste system the Four Hundred the public thwack totem trait trait-complex union upper classes upper crust uppercut variety version way of life welt whack whole people world world of fashion you and me