society

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The totality of people regarded as forming a community of interdependent individuals.
• noun A group of people broadly distinguished from other groups by mutual interests, participation in characteristic relationships, shared institutions, and a common culture.
• noun An organization or association of persons engaged in a common profession, activity, or interest.
• noun The wealthy, socially dominant members of a community.
• noun Companionship; company.
• noun Biology A colony or community of organisms, usually of the same species.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun Fellowship; companionship; company: as, to enjoy the society of the learned; to avoid the society of the vicious.
• noun Participation; sympathy.
• noun Those persons collectively who are united by the common bond of neighborhood and intercourse, and who recognize one another as associates, friends, and acquaintances.
• noun An entire civilized community, or a body of some or all such communities collectively, with its or their body of common interests and aims: with especial reference to the state of civilization, thought, usage, etc., at any period or in any land or region.
• noun Specifically The more cultivated part of any community in its social and intellectual relations, interests, and influences; in a narrow sense, those, collectively, who are recognized as taking the lead in fashionable life; those persons of wealth and position who profess to act in accordance with a more or less artificial and exclusive code of etiquette; fashionable people in general: as, he is not received into society. In this sense frequently used adjectively: as, society people; society gossip; a society journal.
• noun An organized association of persons united for the promotion of some common purpose or object, whether religious, benevolent, literary, scientific, political, convivial, or other; an association for pleasure, profit, or usefulness; a social union; a partnership; a club: as, the Society of Friends; the Society of the Cincinnati; a sewing society; a friendly society.
• noun Specifically In ecclesiastical law, in some of the United States, the corporation or secular body organized pursuant to law with power to sue and be sued, and to hold and administer all the temporalities of a religious society or church, as distinguished from the body of communicants or members united bya confession of faith.
• noun Synonyms Corporation, fraternity, brotherhood.
• noun 6 and
• noun Union, league, lodge.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The relationship of men to one another when associated in any way; companionship; fellowship; company.
• noun rare Connection; participation; partnership.
• noun 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.
• noun 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.
• noun Specifically, the more cultivated portion of any community in its social relations and influences; those who mutually give receive formal entertainments.
• noun See Jesuit.
• noun the lightest kind of lyrical poetry; verses for the amusement of polite society.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun countable A long-standing group of people sharing cultural aspects such as language, dress, norms of behavior and artistic forms.
• noun countable A group of people who meet from time to time to engage in a common interest; an association or organization.
• noun countable The sum total of all voluntary interrelations between individuals.
• noun uncountable The people of one’s country or community taken as a whole.
• noun uncountable High society.
• noun countable, law A number of people joined by mutual consent to deliberate, determine and act toward a common goal.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun the fashionable elite
• noun the state of being with someone
• noun a formal association of people with similar interests
• noun an extended social group having a distinctive cultural and economic organization