sociology
noun
Simple meaning
A social science that studies society, human social interaction, patterns of social relationships, and the interactions of culture.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sohseeahluhjeeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
soʊsiˈɑlədʒi
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
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.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: 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.
Used this way, sociology is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in science and academic writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Science
- Academic writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use sociology
- “My sister is studying sociology at college to understand society.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A social scientist who studies the institutions and development of human society.
A party of people assembled to promote sociability and communal activity.
Related to 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…
Related to 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…
By or with respect to society.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The academic department responsible for teaching and research in sociology.
A sociological theory based on the premise that society comes before individuals.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- anthropologynoun
- socialadjective
- empiricaladjective
- religionnoun
- economicsnoun
- dissertationnoun
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.