ethologist
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Explanation
A scientist who studies how animals behave is an ethologist. Are you fascinated by the waggle dance that bees do to show other bees where to find food? You might want to consider becoming an ethologist! A zoologist who specializes in animal behaviors is an ethologist, and their field is called ethology. These scientists are interested in the characteristic behaviors of different animals, especially how they act in their natural environments. An ethologist might study courtship rituals among various species, compare the way birds express aggression, or investigate animals that exhibit altruistic behavior. The word ethologist derives from the Greek ethos, "character."
Vocabulary lists containing ethologist
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:
Yet studies show that flat-faced dogs possess “kindchenschema” or “baby schema,” a term coined by ethologist Konrad Lorenz to describe infantile features that elicit caregiving reactions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 28, 2025
“Dr. Goodall’s discoveries as an ethologist revolutionized science,” the Jane Goodall Institute said in a statement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2025
Baptiste Piqueret, an ethologist at Sorbonne Paris North University and lead author of the study, already knew that ants could detect the volatile organic compounds wafting off cancer cells.
From Scientific American ● Jan. 24, 2023
“It’s an exciting concept: Even though we’re so different, there is still commonality in the vocalizations,” says Jenna Congdon, an ethologist at Concordia University of Edmonton who was not involved with the study.
From Science Magazine ● Dec. 6, 2022
Of course, you don’t have to become an ethologist to study or work with animals.
From "My Life with the Chimpanzees" by Jane Goodall
Much of that, as it happens, is regarded as nonsense by ethologists — scientists of animal behavior — who focus on dogs.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 10, 2021
It’s long been known that female elephants cooperate, but before ethologists began systematically studying free-roaming horses, few people suspected that cooperating mares were capable not only of waging such a fight—but of winning it.
From Salon ● Sep. 25, 2015
By studying other species, as comparative psychologists and ethologists do, we may in time be able to trace the biological roots and evolutionary history of our abilities to think, use language, and feel emotions.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 26, 2013
As the ethologists have told us, every species has its distinctive world, its Umwelt, the peculiar space in which it feels that it lives.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 24, 2010
Some ethologists go on and on asking questions about one particular kind of animal.
From "My Life with the Chimpanzees" by Jane Goodall
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.
