geologist
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of geologist
Explanation
If you’re fascinated by rocks and spend hours digging for interesting samples in the backyard, you might be a budding geologist, a scientist who studies all things related to the Earth. A geologist is an expert in the field of geology, the study of what the Earth is made of and how it was formed. The woman on TV explaining the history of an active volcano that’s ready to erupt? She’s probably a geologist who specializes in volcanoes. Geologists can specialize in many different aspects of the field, ranging from earthquakes to soil erosion. What they all have in common is that they’re trying to figure out how the Earth works.
Vocabulary lists containing geologist
Occupations
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Earth Science - Middle School
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The Origins of Civilization, Lessons 1–2
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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.
See Examples For:
“To a geologist, this is not at all surprising.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026
"We're used to hearing the 'Big One' -- Cascadia -- being this catastrophic huge thing," said Chris Goldfinger, a marine geologist at Oregon State University and lead author of the study.
From Science Daily ● May 2, 2026
Toby and Daniel Rice are both Rice Investment operating partners, while their brothers Derek, a geologist, and Ryan, a petroleum reservoir engineer, work on the firm’s technical and administrative team, according to the presentation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 27, 2026
The books themselves were both 1836 works about fossils, written by geologist Reverend William Buckland.
From BBC ● Mar. 1, 2026
“Seems the coal vein took a turn it shouldn’t have and now it’s going the wrong way. I think the geologist is about to get the boot.”
From "Moon Over Manifest" by Clare Vanderpool
The archive brings together surveys conducted by Belgian geologists as well as files from mining companies that operated in the vast African country before independence in 1960.
From Barron's ● Jul. 3, 2026
Ever since British geologists extracted diamonds in the 1930s, the country's mineral wealth has rarely reached ordinary people.
From BBC ● May 17, 2026
The idea for using the mines as a geothermal resource began with local geologists discussing methane issues associated with old mining sites.
From Science Daily ● May 6, 2026
No, it’s not a volcano, and while firefighters often refer to the spot as a “natural solfatara,” geologists say that isn’t quite right either.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2026
But all the pages and pages of documentation they had gathered from the lawyers and geologists and archeologists didn’t help them in the end.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
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.
