anomie.

A condition in which shared rules and expectations lose their hold, leaving people without clear social guidance.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• social anomie
• a sense of anomie

On the page

Rapid change produced a sense of anomie among residents who no longer recognized the town.

Usage notes

Primary category: psychology / human behavior. Forms: Usually uncountable; no ordinary plural in this sense. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Commonness: uncommon.