Prefix · society · social
Means "society" or "social": sociology, socioeconomic, sociopath, sociocultural.
Written by Bryan López, English teacher · Updated
Socio- comes from Latin "socius" (companion, partner, ally) and appears in social science and medical vocabulary. Sociology = the study of society; socioeconomic = relating to society and the economy together; sociopath = someone with a disorder affecting their social behaviour; sociocultural = involving both social and cultural factors. Spanish uses the identical prefix "socio-".
Socio- is the prefix of the social sciences: sociology (sociología), sociologist (sociólogo), socialization (the process of becoming part of society). It also appears in cross-disciplinary combinations: socioeconomic (economy and society), sociocultural (culture and society), sociopolitical (politics and society). Knowing this prefix unlocks the entire vocabulary of the humanities and social sciences in English.
Combines with Latin and Greek roots in social science vocabulary:
Pronunciation: /ˈsoʊ.si.oʊ/. Spanish uses the identical prefix: sociología (sociology), sociólogo (sociologist), socioeconómico (socioeconomic), sociocultural, sociópata (sociopath).
socio-/ˈsoʊ.si.oʊ/
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Clinically, both terms now fall under "antisocial personality disorder" in the DSM-5, but they describe different presentations: sociopath (socio- + path = social disease) shows impulsive, erratic antisocial behaviour but may form limited emotional bonds; psychopath (psycho- + path = mental disease) is typically more calculating and entirely incapable of empathy. In everyday speech the terms are often used interchangeably.
A trick to remember it
Socio- = society, social. Spanish cognates: sociología (sociology), socioeconómico (socioeconomic), sociocultural, socialización (socialization). The same prefix works identically in both languages.
Exercise 1 · Form the word
Exercise 2 · Pick the right one
The term "socioeconomic" refers to...
The prefix socio- means "society" or "social": sociology, socioeconomic, sociopath, sociocultural. In Spanish it usually maps to socio-.
The prefix socio- is pronounced /ˈsoʊ.si.oʊ/. For example, "sociology".
"logy" becomes "sociology". It is a typical example of the socio- prefix.
un-, re-, pre-, dis-, over-, in-... every beginning you need to unlock thousands of English words at once.