sociological

American  

[soh-see-uh-loj-i-kuhl, soh-shee-] / ˌsoʊ si əˈlɒdʒ ɪ kəl, ˌsoʊ ʃi- /

Also sociologic

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of sociology and its methodology.

2. dealing with social questions or problems, especially focusing on cultural and environmental factors rather than on psychological or personal characteristics.

   a sociological approach to art.

3. organized into a society; social.

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Other Word Forms

• nonsociological
  adjective
• unsociological
  adjective
• sociologically
  adverb
• unsociologically
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of sociological

First recorded in 1835–45; sociolog(y) + -ic + -al ¹

Explanation

Anything sociological has to do with how society works. Sociological research — like, say, a sociological study that looks at economic inequality in a country — focuses on what people are doing not as individuals but as a group, Sociology is the study of how societies function—the way they form, what rules they follow, the way change affects them, and so on. Things that are related to sociology are sociological, and people who are particularly interested in sociological things are sociologists. They study things like the effects of technology or the role of art in a society. The Latin root of sociological is socius, "associate."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sociological

Perlis, an artist, radio host and Marin native, doesn’t strive for sociological or demographic explanations.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026

But sociologists in the scholar-activist mold note that Du Bois also believed in using sociological truth in the pursuit of activism, promising in 1906 to “never cease to protest and assail the ears of America.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026

More interesting are the ideological and sociological reasons why the ban may have unintended negative consequences.

From Slate ● Jun. 18, 2026

I write about politics — I’m working on an article right now that’s an intellectually fueled argument that I would be willing to defend about political and sociological conditions as I see them.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 23, 2026

There may be no technological or sociological explanation for the decline in belief in witchcraft in the early eighteenth century, but there is an alternative explanation ready to hand.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton