Socioeconomic

How to spell socioeconomic

13 letters · 7 syllables

How to pronounce socioeconomic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does socioeconomic mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to the combined influence of social position and economic circumstances.

Socioeconomic in a sentence

• The study compared health outcomes across different socioeconomic groups.

• Researchers tracked the socioeconomic background of every applicant.

Where does socioeconomic come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This is a compound coined in English in the late nineteenth century by joining two existing word-forming elements. The first part, socio-, derives from the Latin socius, meaning 'companion' or 'ally', the same root that gives us 'social' and 'society'. The second part comes from 'economic', which traces back through Latin to the Greek oikonomia, literally 'household management', built from oikos 'house' and nomos 'law' or 'managing'. By the 1880s scholars were bolting socio- onto economic to describe the way social standing and financial circumstances act together, especially in phrases like 'socioeconomic status'. The spelling trap lives in the seam: the linking 'o' of socio- runs straight into the 'e' of economic with no hyphen and no doubled vowel, so writers must remember the smooth 'ioe' sequence in the middle.

How the word is built

• socio- (relating to society, from Latin socius: companion)
• econom- (household management, from Greek oikonomia)
• -ic (adjective suffix)