Word.ws English Dictionary

surrogate activity

surrogate activity noun: an artificial, nonessential activity done solely for the sense of fulfillment that comes with having some goal to work towards.

Noun

surrogate activity (plural surrogate activities)

  1. an artificial, nonessential activity done solely for the sense of fulfillment that comes with having some goal to work towards.
    • […] devotion to cults and sects that have no goal beyond that of giving “peace,” “health,” or “inspiration” to their members; aimless, restless movement such as rapid change of residence and “going for a ride just to be going’’, petty crime, useless shoplifting; and many other surreptitious or...1932, Wiese, Leopold Von; Becker, Howard, Systematic sociology : on the basis of the beziehungslehre and gebildelehre
    • 39. We use the term “surrogate activity” to designate an activity that is directed toward an artificial goal that people set up for themselves merely in order to have some goal to work toward, or let us say, merely for the sake of the “fulfillment” that they get from pursuing the goal.1995, Ted Kaczynski, “Industrial Society and its Future”, in The Washington Post

Examples of surrogate activity in a sentence

  • To fight a war, or knock somebody over the head, or some surrogate activity like hunting or building a log cabin or climbing a mountain.2017, DeMille, Nelson, author, The Gold Coast, →OCLC:
  • The truth of the matter is this: video games are a surrogate activity and playing them will NEVER give you the same rush as accomplishing something good in the real world.2023 July 23, Dennis Yuleman, The Tetralithic Era So We Shall Not Mourn A Paradise Lost:

Forms of surrogate activity

pluralsurrogate activities

Origin of surrogate activity

Appears in psychological texts since early 20th century. Popularized in 1995 by Ted Kaczynski's Industrial Society and its Future.

Questions about surrogate activity

What does surrogate activity mean?
Surrogate activity means an artificial, nonessential activity done solely for the sense of fulfillment that comes with having some goal to work towards.
How do you use surrogate activity in a sentence?
To fight a war, or knock somebody over the head, or some surrogate activity like hunting or building a log cabin or climbing a mountain.
What part of speech is surrogate activity?
Surrogate activity is a noun.
What is the plural of surrogate activity?
The plural of surrogate activity is surrogate activities.

Words near surrogate activity in the dictionary

  1. surrogacies
  2. surrogacy
  3. surrogata
  4. surrogate
  5. surrogate activities
  6. surrogate activity
  7. surrogate advertising
  8. surrogate court
  9. surrogate courts
  10. surrogate father
  11. surrogate fathers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: surrogate activity (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “surrogate activity.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/surrogate_activity. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.