Main Difference
The main difference between Society and Nation is that the Society is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations and Nation is a community of people who share a common language, culture, ethnicity, descent, or history.
Society
A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same geographical or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societies are characterized by patterns of relationships (social relations) between individuals who share a distinctive culture and institutions; a given society may be described as the sum total of such relationships among its constituent of members. In the social sciences, a larger society often exhibits stratification or dominance patterns in subgroups.
Insofar as it is collaborative, a society can enable its members to benefit in ways that would not otherwise be possible on an individual basis; both individual and social (common) benefits can thus be distinguished, or in many cases found to overlap. A society can also consist of like-minded people governed by their own norms and values within a dominant, larger society. This is sometimes referred to as a subculture, a term used extensively within criminology.
More broadly, and especially within structuralist thought, a society may be illustrated as an economic, social, industrial or cultural infrastructure, made up of, yet distinct from, a varied collection of individuals. In this regard society can mean the objective relationships people have with the material world and with other people, rather than “other people” beyond the individual and their familiar social environment.
Nation
A nation is a stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, history, ethnicity, or psychological make-up manifested in a common culture.
A nation is more overtly political than an ethnic group; it has been described as “a fully mobilized or institutionalized ethnic group”. Some nations are ethnic groups (see ethnic nationalism) and some are not (see civic nationalism and multiculturalism).It is a cultural-political community that has become conscious of its autonomy, unity, and particular interests.Benedict Anderson has characterised a nation as an “imagined community” and Paul James sees it as an “abstract community”. A nation is an imagined community in the sense that the material conditions exist for imagining extended and shared connections. It is an abstract community in the sense that it is objectively impersonal, even if each individual in the nation experiences him or herself as subjectively part of an embodied unity with others. For the most part, members of a nation remain strangers to each other and will likely never meet. Hence the phrase, “a nation of strangers” used by such writers as Vance Packard.
Society (noun)
A long-standing group of people sharing cultural aspects such as language, dress, norms of behavior and artistic forms.
“This society has been known for centuries for its colorful clothing and tight-knit family structure.”
Society (noun)
A group of people who meet from time to time to engage in a common interest; an association or organization.
“It was then that they decided to found a society of didgeridoo-playing unicyclists.”
Society (noun)
The sum total of all voluntary interrelations between individuals.
“The gap between Western and Eastern societies seems to be narrowing.”
Society (noun)
The people of one’s country or community taken as a whole.
“Our global society develops in fits and starts.”
Society (noun)
High society.
“Smith was first introduced into society at the Duchess of Grand Fenwick’s annual rose garden party.”
Society (noun)
A number of people joined by mutual consent to deliberate, determine and act toward a common goal.
Nation (noun)
A historically constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, ethnicity and/or psychological make-up manifested in a common culture.
“The Roma are a nation without a country.”
“The Kurdish people constitute a nation in the Middle East”
Nation (noun)
A sovereign state.
“Though legally single nations, many states comprise several distinct cultural or ethnic groups.”
Nation (noun)
An association of students based on its members’ birthplace or ethnicity. t
“Once widespread across Europe in medieval times, nations are now largely restricted to the ancient universities of Sweden and Finland.”
Nation (noun)
A great number; a great deal.
Nation (noun)
Damnation.
Nation (adverb)
Extremely, very.
Society (noun)
the aggregate of people living together in a more or less ordered community
“drugs, crime, and other dangers to society”
Society (noun)
the community of people living in a particular country or region and having shared customs, laws, and organizations
“modern industrial societies”
“the ethnic diversity of British society”
Society (noun)
a specified section of society
“no one in polite society uttered the word”
Society (noun)
the aggregate of people who are fashionable, wealthy, and influential, regarded as forming a distinct group in a community
“a society wedding”
Society (noun)
a plant or animal community
“the analogy between insect society and human city is not new”
Society (noun)
an organization or club formed for a particular purpose or activity
“the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds”
Society (noun)
the situation of being in the company of other people
“she shunned the society of others”