zoological
AmericanOther Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of zoological
Explanation
Anything zoological is about animals. It’s logical that you’d use the word at a zoo, where critters and beasts hang out. This is an easy word to remember if you think about zoos. In fact, zoo is short for Zoological Gardens, the first of which was created by the London Zoological Society to house the society’s wild animals. Zoo comes from the Greek word for animal, zoion, plus -ology for “the study of” and then -ical, an ending that makes the word an adjective. If you’re describing something that has to do with the study of animals, zoological is your word.
Vocabulary lists containing zoological
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The case would go all the way to the international commission on zoological nomenclature, with “taxonomic instability” in the balance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
Hertfordshire Zoo says the successful breeding programme is a "significant victory for the wider zoological community, with only a handful of black and rufous sengi currently residing in the UK".
From BBC ● Mar. 14, 2026
Belgium's AfricaMuseum is the country's biggest dedicated to the Congo, displaying millions of colonial-era objects and zoological specimens.
From Barron's ● Feb. 12, 2026
The discovery also underscores the value of zoological collections for biodiversity research.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 28, 2026
“The Hall of Man is quite spectacular. And our zoological collection is beyond—” “I would like to see the minerals you do not reveal to the public. One in particular.”
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
