biologist
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of biologist
Explanation
A biologist is a scientist who focuses on living organisms, including plants and animals. Wildlife biologists might specialize in studying African elephants. Biologists study a wide variety of life forms, from single-celled organisms to primates, and conduct research in many different areas, from the spreading of pathogens to the details of evolution. A marine biologist studies sea creatures and a microbiologist might study algae or bacteria. The word biologist is rooted in the Greek bios, or "life."
Vocabulary lists containing biologist
"Siberian Survivors" and "Tigers in the Wild"
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Roots: bio
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Unit 18, Lesson 3
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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.
“Animals and pathogens do not care about political borders,” said Jérôme Gippet, a biologist at the University of Fribourg and the University of Lausanne in Switzerland and the study’s lead author.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 13, 2026
The Scottish photographer, a trained diver and marine biologist, captured spectacular views of the frozen world above and below the water.
From BBC • Apr. 10, 2026
Powell, the geneticist in Indiana, is a cancer biologist by training and has heard similar claims before.
From Slate • Mar. 30, 2026
Then, overnight to Friday, the whale "gathered its forces" and "freed itself using its own strength", marine biologist Robert Marc Lehmann said.
From Barron's • Mar. 27, 2026
While my family’s history of mental illness was cutting through my consciousness like a red line, my scientific work as a cancer biologist was also converging on the normalcy and abnormalcy of genes.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
