Ethology
//ɪˈθɑl.ə.d͡ʒi// noun
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The scientific study of animalian behavior, especially that of nonhuman animals. countable, uncountable
- 2 the branch of zoology that studies the behavior of animals in their natural habitats wordnet
- 3 The study of the human ethos. countable, obsolete, uncountable
Example
More examples"In dog ethology the leader is called 'alpha'; after that it continues with 'beta' and 'gamma'."
Etymology
From the Latin ēthologia (“the art of depicting or imitating character”), from the Ancient Greek ἠθολογία (ēthología, “painting of character, especially by mimic gestures”), from ἠθολόγος (ēthológos, “painting character by mimic gestures”), from ἦθος (êthos, “character, especially moral character”). Equivalent to etho- + -logy.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.