Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A branch of learning.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A science the name of which ends in -ology; hence, any science or branch of knowledge.
  • noun A termination in many words taken from the Greek or formed of Greek elements, especially words denoting a science or department of knowledge. See the etymology.
  • noun A termination of some nouns of Greek origin (few or none of this kind being newly formed) in which -ology implies ‘a gathering.’ Examples are anthology, a gathering of flowers (distinguished from anthology, the science of flowers, a word of modern formation), and carpology.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A colloquial or humorous name for any science or branch of knowledge.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun colloquial Any branch of learning, especially one ending in “-logy”.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an informal word (abstracted from words with this ending) for some unidentified branch of knowledge

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From –ology.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the suffix -ology in the names of many sciences

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Examples

  • Tehran-ology is the only way to try and understand it.

    Wonk Room » For More Tehran-ology 2009

  • (Note: I've filed this under "general" since AcmeGirl doesn't specify if her ology is in the physical or biological sciences.)

    Additions to the Blogroll Peggy 2008

  • (Note: I've filed this under "general" since AcmeGirl doesn't specify if her ology is in the physical or biological sciences.)

    Archive 2008-04-01 Peggy 2008

  • Which makes me wonder whether women in - ology don't travel to conferences as much as their male counterparts (because of family obligations, etc.)?

    Archive 2006-10-01 ScienceWoman 2006

  • Unlike the biomedical fields, it is rare in - ology to have six digit multiple year grants which can fund an entire post-doc or PhD, so the process of grant-writing is much more ubiquitous.

    Archive 2006-11-01 ScienceWoman 2006

  • Unlike the biomedical fields, it is rare in - ology to have six digit multiple year grants which can fund an entire post-doc or PhD, so the process of grant-writing is much more ubiquitous.

    What does a post-doc do? ScienceWoman 2006

  • There simply aren't any career opportunities for someone with a BS in - ology in Hometown.

    Archive 2006-05-01 ScienceWoman 2006

  • Professor Alan Marquand, whose voice in matters of Greek archæology is second in authority to none, is even of opinion that the Corinthian capital is of lotus derivation.

    Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers 1891

  • Were I asked to define it, I should reply that archæology is that science which enables us to register and classify our knowledge of the sum of man's achievement in those arts and handicrafts whereby he has, in time past, signalized his passage from barbarism to civilization.

    Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers 1891

  • Response: I study - ology, which is one of the natural sciences.

    Archive 2006-07-01 ScienceWoman 2006

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