What Is an ology?

You have probably seen and heard a great many words in the English language that end with “ology.” This is a suffix, which comes from a Greek word meaning “the study of.”

Some of the more familiar words using this suffix are:

anthropology, the study of man

astrology, the study of the influence of the stars

biology, the study of living things

ecology, the study of the environment

icthyology, the study of fish

speleology, the study of caves.

But there are some “ologies” that people study which you might not have heard of:

cacology – the study of mispronunciation of words

caliology, the study of birds’ nests

dactylogy, the study of fingers

deltiology, the study of picture postcards

pseudology, the study of the art of lying.

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One Comment

  1. marie
    Posted 2010/01/06 at 11:14 pm | Permalink

    Why is it GeneALOGY and not GeneOLOGY even though its a
    study of family history?
    Please help its doing my head in :-(

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