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.
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
"Once the termites reach a certain stage, they have to molt. They cannot avoid that," said Dong-Hwan Choe, UCR entomology professor and senior paper author.
From Science Daily ● May 9, 2026
Heather Ferguson, professor of medical entomology at the University of Glasgow, described the initial response to their three-year long project as "tremendous".
From BBC ● Apr. 30, 2025
“There’s no sense making a web … if there’s nothing to eat,” said Rick Vetter, a retired research associate in UC Riverside’s entomology department.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2024
From 1911 to the early 1950s this ranked as a central notion in entomology, attract- ing the attention of many fascinated nonentomologists.
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.
