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.