entomology
Americannoun
noun
Word History
Scientists who study insects (there are close to a million that can be studied!) are called entomologists. Why are they not called “insectologists”? Well, in a way they are. The word insect comes from the Latin word insectum, meaning “cut up or divided into segments.” (The plural of insectum, namely insecta, is used by scientists as the name of the taxonomic class that insects belong to.) This Latin word was created in order to translate the Greek word for “insect,” which is entomon. This Greek word also literally means “cut up or divided into segments,” and it is the source of the word entomology. The Greeks had coined this term for insects because of the clear division of insect bodies into three segments, now called the head, thorax, and abdomen.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of entomology
Explanation
Entomology is the study of insects. If you want to know all about ants, beetles, and mosquitoes entomology is for you. From the Greek word for “knowledge,” the suffix -logy literally means “the study of,” and you see it often. Theology is the study of divine beings, anthropology is the study of human cultures, psychology is the study of the mind. Add the Greek prefix entomon, for insect, and you have the branch of biology that focuses on bugs.
Vocabulary lists containing entomology
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Power Suffix: -ology
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "E"
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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.
Schroeder’s advisor and paper co-author, Christiane Weirauch, participated in that effort before she joined UC Riverside as an entomology professor.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2026
That’s not typical behavior for insects, according to Megan Barkdull, assistant curator of entomology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
The curriculum combined fire hose blasts of information about rod physics and trout-stream entomology with hands-on instruction.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
He is also a member of an entomology association in Modena, a city in the north of Italy.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2024
There it sat, occupying important intellectual ground, at just the time when entomology was emerging as an experimental science of considerable power, capable of solving matters of intricate detail, a paradigm of the new reductionism.
From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas
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.
