zoologist
Americannoun
-
zoologists
plural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of zoologist
Explanation
A zoologist is a scientist who studies animals. Zoologists are experts on everything about animals, from their cells to the history of their evolution. If you love and are fascinated by animals, you might decide to become a zoologist. Your major in college will probably be zoology, which is a branch of biology focusing on all animals — even those that are extinct. A zoologist may end up doing research, or work as a zookeeper in a zoo. Zoologist shares a root with zoology, the Latin zoologia, which combines the Greek words zoion, "animal," and logia, "study."
Vocabulary lists containing zoologist
Turtles All the Way Down
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UCPS 6th Grade Roots List #16
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -ist
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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:
"Previously, such chelae were known from only three insect groups. This fossil therefore represents the fourth known case of these structures evolving independently in insects," explains Privatdozent Carolin Haug, zoologist at LMU's Faculty of Biology.
From Science Daily ● May 25, 2026
Contrary to what some may think, birds cannot always easily flee the dangers of war, zoologist Ewa Wegrzyn, from the Polish University of Rzeszow, said.
From Barron's ● May 20, 2026
Ms. Wimpenny, a British zoologist, aims to rehabilitate creepy-crawlies, predators and even, somewhat, real and presumed disease carriers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026
Prince William praised the zoologist as "a man who dedicated his life to conservation and whose life's work leaves lasting impact on our appreciation for, and understanding of, elephants".
From BBC ● Dec. 9, 2025
Davenport, the Harvard-trained zoologist famous for establishing the Eugenics Record Office, created a standardized evaluation form to judge the fittest babies.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Until the 1960s, Ms. Horn writes, most zoologists had “studied only specimens on cold tables, or broken creatures in shackles or cages.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
This disconnect has fueled years of debate among zoologists and paleontologists.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 15, 2026
Testing by zoologists concluded he suffered traumatic impact injuries, but more testing is planned to determine whether he may have been sick.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 3, 2024
At this stage, co-authors Darya Krupenko and Aleksei Miroliubov, invertebrate zoologists at Saint Petersburg University, suspected this enigmatic conglomerate might be a parasite.
From Science Magazine ● Sep. 21, 2023
Of interest to zoologists I can report the following: a tiger will not at first attack a shark out of water with its jaws but will rather strike at it with its forepaws.
From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
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.
