ology

[ol-uh-jee]

noun

Informal or Facetious.

plural

ologies 

1. any science or branch of knowledge.

ology

/ ˈɒlədʒɪ /

noun

1. informal,  a science or other branch of knowledge

Word History and Origins

Origin of ology¹

First recorded in 1795–1805; extracted from words like biology, geology, etc., where the element -logy is preceded by the connecting vowel -o-; -o-

Word History and Origins

Origin of ology¹

C19: abstracted from words with this ending, such as theology, biology, etc; see _-logy

Example Sentences

The word “logic” comes from the Greek term “logos” which is the root for our suffix -ology.

From Salon

“I made this error of doing economics and policy, instead of what I was really interested in, which was the animals. I could have done conservation biology, but I was too intimidated by the ‘ology.’”

From New York Times

“Hidden Brain,” hosted by Shankar Vedantam, explores concepts from cognitive science, psychology, sociology, anthropology — basically all the -ologies! — and how these concepts are expressed in our lives.

From Los Angeles Times

Every scientific project that persists gets an ‘-ology’, and the study of sociable viruses is no different.

From Nature

Categories often come with an education-related twist, such as questions on “-ology” or surveys about the best job you could have in college.

From Washington Post