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

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

Both men have helped bridge the gap between South and North and have offered a theological and sociological approach that represents Southern concerns in a less abrasive way than, for example, African Catholicism might.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 20, 2026

Erivo asks the central question from the interior point of view; Nelson peers at it through a sociological, historical lens.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 22, 2025

This chapter has pointed instead to a sociological reality—the scientific network—and more concretely, the small crowd that surrounded Périer on the summit of the Puy-de-Dôme.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton