interdisciplinary
Americanadjective
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combining or involving two or more academic disciplines or fields of study.
The economics and history departments are offering an interdisciplinary seminar on Asia.
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combining or involving two or more professions, technologies, departments, or the like, as in business or industry.
adjective
Etymology
Origin of interdisciplinary
First recorded in 1935–40; inter- ( def. ) + disciplinary ( def. )
Compare meaning
How does interdisciplinary compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Something that's interdisciplinary covers more than one field of study. If you take an interdisciplinary science and literature class, you might read a science fiction novel and then explore the scientific ideas behind it. The word interdisciplinary can be broken into its parts: inter-, which means "between" in Latin, and disciplinary, which is from the Latin disciplina and means teaching or knowledge. Interdisciplinary means between fields, but they don't have to be unrelated disciplines. You can do interdisciplinary work between two sciences, for example. An interdisciplinary conference on biology and computer science might include workshops on both fields.
Vocabulary lists containing interdisciplinary
Words with 15 or More Letters, List 5
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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.
"This was a highly interdisciplinary effort," said Mark Mimee, PhD, Assistant Professor of Microbiology at the University of Chicago.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 19, 2026
She has described that experience as important in shaping an interdisciplinary approach that combines basic science, computer science, and medicine.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 14, 2026
The program’s interdisciplinary approach takes into account changing interests.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
One of them was Socolow, a theoretical physicist who had been leading an interdisciplinary environmental program at Princeton since 1971.
From Salon ● Jun. 26, 2026
Ernest shared Cushing’s faith in the value of interdisciplinary research, but his views were not widely shared on campus.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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.
