ethnologist
Americannoun
Explanation
A scientist who compares the way different human societies and cultures function is an ethnologist. An ethnologist is sometimes called a cultural anthropologist. An ethnologist is an anthropologist who specializes in studying data about the way different groups of people live, and then comparing and contrasting this information. By looking at the religious beliefs, languages, and social norms of various cultures, ethnologists can discover the things we all have in common. The ultimate goal of this work is to better understand humanity. The Greek root of ethnologist is ethnos, "people."
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.
Between the 1930s and the 1970s, German ethnologist Hans Himmelheber journeyed across Ivory Coast amassing a collection of ritual objects.
From Barron's ● Jan. 16, 2026
Alessandro Lupo, an Italian ethnologist who has studied the voladores, ventured that the spectacular nature of the ritual allowed it to survive the Spanish.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 20, 2023
Fuller’s friend Vilhjalmur Stefansson, an Arctic explorer and ethnologist, had introduced him to Alfred J. T. Taylor, a mechanical engineer from London who was interested in a license for sales overseas.
From Slate ● Aug. 2, 2022
His contemporary, geographer and ethnologist Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, called it “dental pictography.”
From Washington Post ● Aug. 30, 2021
The ethnologist of to-day cannot discover a feature, hardly a trace even, of the language of the conquerors remaining among the present tribes of occupation.
From Martyria or Andersonville Prison by Augustus C. Hamlin
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.
