Definition
nounThe study of all life or living matter.
nounThe living organisms of a particular region.
Sentence Examples
I never liked biology.
I don't think this is a good approach to biology.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *gʷeyh₃-der.
Ancient Greek βίος (bíos)
Proto-Indo-European *leǵ-
Ancient Greek λόγος (lógos)
Proto-Indo-European *-h₂
Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂
Proto-Indo-European *-i-eh₂
Proto-Hellenic *-íā
Ancient Greek -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā)
Ancient Greek -λογῐ́ᾱ (-logĭ́ā)bor.
New Latin -logia
New Latin biologialbor.
English biology
Borrowed from New Latin biologia (1766), itself from Ancient Greek βίος (bíos, “bio-, life”) + -λογία (-logía, “-logy, branch of study, to speak”). By surface analysis, bio- + -logy.
In English, first attested in the modern meaning in the work of English physician Thomas Beddoes in 1799. The term is also recorded in the sense of a biographical history in the work of Dudley Loftus in 1686, but this is considered by the Oxford English Dictionary to be an isolated use. The modern Greek βιολογία (viología) is borrowed from the English term and French biologie via international scientific vocabulary. Piecewise doublet of zoology.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"As in much of biology, the most satisfying truths in ecology derive from manipulative experimentation. Tinker with nature and quantify how it responds."
— 2012 January 26, Robert M. Pringle, “How to Be Manipulative”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 03 Oct 2013, page 31:
"The object of these prizes is to stimulate and encourage original investigation by the aid of the microscope in the biology of North America, and, while the competition is open to all, it is especially commended to advanced students in biology in such of our universities and colleges as furnish opportunity for suitable work."
— 1893, “Prizes for original work with the microscope”, in Proceedings of the American Microscopical Society, volume 14, page 38:
"That a Town has a biology of its own has been, since Freeman and Green, a familiar idea to us. But it was not in England, with its old established central governments, that the idea was likely to arise; and we know what the local history of our old antiquaries was like."
— 1912, J. H. Rose, C[harles] H[arold] Herford, E[dward] C[arter] K[earsey] Gonner, M[ichael] E[rnest] Sadler, Germany in the Nineteenth Century: Five Lectures, Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, Inc., page 67: