Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

social lubricant

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.05 in modern English

Syllables: so-cial lu-bri-cant
IPA

21

Scrabble Score

15

Letters

4

Syllables

11

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A food, beverage, drug or activity that helps people feel more comfortable in social occasions.

Example Sentences

"Beer's qualities as a “social lubricant” should play an important role in the debate on the harms of alcohol, according to the boss of Heineken."

Etymology

By a metaphor in which facilitating human social interaction is portrayed as lubricating machinery (e.g., oiling the gears, greasing the wheels); in this regard, compare also lubrication payment.

Inflected Forms

social lubricants (plural)

Frequently Paired Words

icebreaker

Questions

What does social lubricant mean?: A food, beverage, drug or activity that helps people feel more comfortable in social occasions.
Where does social lubricant come from?: By a metaphor in which facilitating human social interaction is portrayed as lubricating machinery (e.g., oiling the gears, greasing the wheels); in this regard, compare also lubrication payment.

How to pronounce social lubricant

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “social lubricant”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “social lubricant”.
Repeat and practice — Say “social lubricant” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.