Sociology
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A social science that studies society, human social interaction, patterns of social relationships, and the interactions of culture. Through both theory and applied research, it engages subject matters across a range of microanalysis, mesoanalysis, and macroanalysis.
"Maisie says that Danny entered the manosphere through the realm of self-help, which Cynthia Miller-Idriss, a sociology professor at American University who specializes in extremism, says is “a great example of how radicalization works.”"
- 2 the study and classification of human societies wordnet
Example
More examples"Frank majored in sociology at university."
Etymology
From French sociologie, coined by Auguste Comte in 1834, itself a combination of Latin socius (“companion, fellowship”) and the Greek suffix Ancient Greek -λογία (-logía), itself from Ancient Greek λόγος (lógos, “word, knowledge”), from socio- + -logy. Previous mentions of the field in English usually referred to it as social physics.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.