social distancing

English

Swiss "Keep Your Distance" social distancing sign

Alternative forms

social-distancing

Pronunciation

(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsoʊʃəl ˌdɪstən(t)sɪŋ/
(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsəʊʃəl ˌdɪstən(t)sɪŋ/

Noun

social distancing (uncountable)

(epidemiology) The practice of maintaining physical distance between people to reduce the spread of communicable diseases by isolating those with such diseases in quarantines, maintaining space between individuals, and prohibiting certain activities.
- 2004, United States Department of Homeland Security, “Biological Incident Annex”, in National Response Plan, page 7:
  The Governor of an affected State implements isolation and/or social-distancing requirements using State/local legal authorities.
- 2006, World Health Organization Writing Group, “Nonpharmaceutical Interventions for Pandemic Influenza, International Measures”, in Emerging Infectious Diseases, volume 12, number 1, DOI:10.3201/eid1201.051370, page 81:
  Nonpharmaceutical interventions outside of healthcare settings focus on measures to 1) limit international spread of the virus (e.g., travel screening and restrictions); 2) reduce spread within national and local populations (e.g., isolation and treatment of ill persons; monitoring and possible quarantine of exposed persons; and social distancing measures, such as cancellation of mass gatherings and closure of schools); 3) reduce an individual person’s risk for infection (e.g., hand hygiene); and 4) communicate risk to the public.
- 2006 February 6, Donald McNeil Jr., “States and Cities Lag in Bird Flu Readiness”, in The New York Times‎:
  Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg, president of the Institute of Medicine, the medical arm of the National Academy of Sciences, was more pessimistic. “We’re completely unprepared,” Dr. Fineberg said, adding that if an epidemic struck in the next year, the quarantine-based strategy called social distancing “is likely to be all we’re going to have as a strategy.”
- 2020 April 8, “Network News: Crossrail heads the construction projects placed on hold”, in Rail, page 12:
  A spokesman confirmed that work would continue on projects such as the construction of a grade-separated junction at Werrington [...] where compliance with government advice and "social distancing can be guaranteed".
- 2020 November 4, Paul Bigland, “At no point have I felt unsafe...”, in Rail, page 47:
  All I spot are lots of anglers on the canal at Wigan, indulging in a sport where social distancing is de rigueur!
- 2021, Neil Arwin Mercado, “Death, huge crowd shut down Angel Locsin’s birthday community pantry”, in Philippine Daily Inquirer:
  A huge crowd—visibly not observing social distancing—turned up Friday at the birthday community pantry organized by actress Angel Locsin in Quezon City.

Synonyms

physical distancing

Coordinate terms

confinement
cordon sanitaire
isolation
lockdown
non-pharmaceutical intervention
NPI
quarantine
sequestration
shelter in place

Related terms

social distance (sociology)
socially distant

Descendants

→ Swedish: social distansering (calque)

Translations

practice of maintaining physical distance between people to reduce the spread of communicable diseases

Afrikaans: sosiale distansiëring
Albanian: distancë shoqërore
Arabic: please add this translation if you can
Armenian: please add this translation if you can
Assamese: শাৰীৰিক দূৰত্ব (xaririk durotto)
Azerbaijani: sosial məsafələşmə
Basque: urruntze sozial
Bengali: শারীরিক দূরত্ব (śarīrik dūrôtẇ)
Bulgarian: обществена дистанция (obštestvena distancija), социална дистанция (socialna distancija)
Catalan: distanciament social m, distanciació social f
Chinese:
Cantonese: 保持社交距離, 保持社交距离 (bou² ci⁴ se⁵ gaau¹ keoi⁵ lei⁴)
Mandarin: 保持社交距離／保持社交距离 (bǎochí shèjiāo jùlí)
Czech: sociální distancování f
Danish: social distancering c, fysisk distancering c, fysisk afstand c
Dutch: sociale onthouding (nl) f
Estonian: sotsiaalne distantseerumine
Finnish: sosiaalinen etäännyttäminen
French: distanciation sociale (fr) f, éloignement social m, distanciation physique (fr) f, éloignement physique m
Georgian: სოციალური დისტანცირება (socialuri disṭancireba)
German: soziale Distanzierung (de) f, Social Distancing n, räumliche Distanzierung f, räumliche Trennung f,
Greek: κοινωνική απομάκρυνση (el) f (koinonikí apomákrynsi)
Gujarati: શારીરિક દૂરી (śārīrik dūrī)
Hebrew: ריחוק חברתי‎ m (rikhúk khevratí)
Hindi: शारीरिक दूरी (śārīrik dūrī)
Hungarian: közösségi távolságtartás (hu), társasági távolságtartás, társas távolságtartás, szociális távolságtartás
Icelandic: samskiptafjarlægð f
Indonesian: jaga jarak sosial
Irish: scaradh sóisialta m
Italian: distanziamento sociale m
Japanese: ソーシャルディスタンス (ja) (sōsharudisutansu), 社会距離拡大戦略 (ja) (しゃかいきょりかくだいせんりゃく, shakaikyorikakudaisenryaku)
Kannada: please add this translation if you can
Khmer: ការរក្សាចម្ងាយពីគ្នា (karrôksachmngéaypiknéa)
Korean: 사회적(社會的) 거리(距離)두기 (sahoejeok georidugi)
Kurdish:
Northern Kurdish: dûrxistina civakî f
Macedonian: друштвено растојание n (društveno rastojanie)
Malay: penjarakan sosial (ms), penjarakan fizikal (ms)
Malayalam: സാമൂഹിക അകലം (sāmūhika akalaṃ)
Maltese: please add this translation if you can
Marathi: शारीरिक अंतर (śārīrik antar)
Norwegian:
Bokmål: sosial distansering m or f, fysisk distansering m or f, fysisk avstand m
Nynorsk: sosial distansering f, fysisk distansering f, fysisk avstand m
Persian: فاصله‌گذاری اجتماعی‎ (fâsele-gozâri-ye ejtemâ'i)
Polish: dystansowanie społeczne n
Portuguese: distanciamento social m
Punjabi: ਸਰੀਰਕ ਦੂਰੀ (sarīrak dūrī)
Romanian: distanțare socială f
Russian: социа́льное дистанци́рование n (sociálʹnoje distancírovanije)
Scottish Gaelic: astrachadh sòisealta m
Serbo-Croatian: please add this translation if you can
Slovak: please add this translation if you can
Spanish: distanciamiento social m
Swedish: social distansering (sv) c, fysisk distansering c
Tagalog: please add this translation if you can
Tamil: சமூக இடைவெளி (camūka iṭaiveḷi)
Thai: การเว้นระยะห่างทางสังคม
Tibetan: please add this translation if you can
Turkish: sosyal mesafe
Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can
Vietnamese: sự cách ly xã hội, khoảng cách xã hội, sự giãn cách xã hội, sự cách ly vật lý, khoảng cách xã giao
Yiddish: סאָציאַלע דיסטאַנצירונג‎ f (sotsyale distantsirung)

Verb

social distancing

present participle of social distance