milieu

Noun

milieu (plural milieux or milieus)

1. An environment or setting; a medium; environs
   • Australian cinema is a messy affair. It is a messiness not only in our ways of knowing, reading, consuming and producing films and the larger film-making milieu of which they are a part, but also a messiness among the films themselves […]1996, Tom O’Regan, “Introducing Australian Cinema”, in Australian National Cinema (National Cinemas Series), London; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 2
   • In the electronic milieu, accuracy is accomplished by the technology, and the appropriate strategy for judgment is likely to entail ensuring coherence within and across electronic and naturalistic components of the ecology.2013, Kathleen L. Mosier, “Judgment and Prediction”, in John D. Lee, Alex Kirlik, editors, The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Engineering (Oxford Library of Psychology), Oxford, Oxfordshire; New York...
2. (specifically) A social environment or setting.
   • The distinction between the constituents in, and the conditions of, the integral life-career of person is well brought out in contrasting the attitudes of attention which persons normally develop with the milieux or social media which serve as the theater for their exercise. […] The assertive...1927 July, Percy Hughes, “The Biotic Center of Psychology”, in The Center, Function and Structure of Psychology (Lehigh University Publication; vol. 1, no. 6; Institute of Research; circular no. 9...
   • Confronted by the multiplicity of the milieus that could influence curriculum activity, we need some way of deciding not only what kinds of milieus should claim our attention, but also what kinds of knowledge about them we should attend to.1992, William A[rbuckle] Reid, “The Commonplace of the Milieus”, in Arthur Woodward, Ian Westbury, editors, The Pursuit of Curriculum: Schooling and the Public Interest (Issues in Curriculum Theory...
3. A group of people with a common point of view; a social class or group.
   • It's not easy to find someone whom one has mislaid for years in London, particularly if she belongs to the sort of milieu that Anna belonged to, but clearly the first thing to do is look in the telephone book.1954, Iris Murdoch, chapter 2, in Under the Net […], London: The Reprint Society, published 1955, →OCLC, page 35