biologist
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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"
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Florida's B.E.S.T. Roots: bio
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Unit 18, Lesson 3
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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.
See Examples For:
By the late 1980s, Yancopoulos was an up-and-coming molecular biologist at Columbia’s campus in northern Manhattan.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
What’s more depressing is that a research biologist interviewed by KING-TV, Seattle’s NBC affiliate, stated that the beached whales people have encountered likely represent only a quarter to a fifth of the total death toll.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026
Zuly Marín, a 66-year-old biologist, has lived in the Mariola and Maribel Residences for more than a decade.
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026
Sandy was named in honor of the late Sandy Steers, longtime biologist and executive director of FOBBV.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 28, 2026
In Darwin’s time, the most commonly accepted mechanism of heredity was a theory advanced by the eighteenth-century French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Its variety and complexity has fascinated biologists, but with so many different songs, it has been difficult to study on a global scale.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
As they do yearly, Marine biologists and wildlife officials urge fans to respect Neil’s privacy and let him molt: The more peace he gets, the more we can look forward to his next visit.
From Salon ● Jul. 7, 2026
Together with local leopard experts and evolutionary biologists, we collected muscle or skin tissue of the leopards and compared them with genomes of leopards from other parts of Africa.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 24, 2026
Wildlife officials captured the cat later that afternoon, and biologists determined it was a young and healthy male, according to a spokesperson with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2026
The biologists therefore had no trouble finding areas for their study.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
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.
