sociology

English

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.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: sō-shē-ŏl′-əjē IPA^(key): /ˌsəʊsiːˈɒləd͡ʒiː/, /ˌsəʊʃiːˈɒləd͡ʒiː/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American, dialects of Canada) IPA^(key): /ˌsoʊsiˈɑləd͡ʒi/, /ˌsoʊʃiˈɑləd͡ʒi/
• (Canada, dialects of the US) IPA^(key): /ˌsoʊsiˈɒləd͡ʒi/, /ˌsoʊʃiˈɒləd͡ʒi/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˌsəʉsiːˈɔləd͡ʒiː/, /ˌsəʉʃiːˈɔləd͡ʒiː/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˌsɐʉsiːˈɒləd͡ʒiː/, [ˌsɐʉsiːˈɔ̟ləd͡ʒiː], /ˌsɐʉʃiːˈɒləd͡ʒiː/, [ˌsɐʉʃiːˈɔ̟ləd͡ʒiː]

Noun

sociology (plural sociologies)

2. 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.
   • 2024 November 20, Fortesa Latifi, “How These Men Left the Manosphere — and Why Some May Never”, in Teen Vogue‎^[2]:

     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.”

Meronyms

• See also Thesaurus:sociology

Derived terms

• anthroposociology
• biosociology
• cow sociology
• cybersociology
• ethnosociology
• formal sociology
• historical sociology
• macrosociology
• mathematical sociology
• metasociology
• microsociology
• neurosociology
• nonsociology
• phytosociology
• pseudosociology
• psychosociology
• sociologese
• sociologist
• sociologistic
• sociologize
• xenosociology
• zoosociology

Translations

study of society, human social interactions, etc.

• Afrikaans: sosiologie
• Albanian: sociologji (sq) f
• Antillean Creole: sosioloji f
• Arabic: عِلْم الْمُجْتَمَع m (ʕilm al-mujtamaʕ)
• Aragonese: sociolochía f, soziolochía f
• Armenian: սոցիոլոգիա (hy) (socʻiologia), հասարակագիտություն (hy) (hasarakagitutʻyun)
• Assamese: সমাজ বিজ্ঞান (xomaz biggan)
• Azerbaijani:

  Arabic: اجتماعيات (ijtimāeiāt)

  Latin: ictimaiyyat, sosiologiya

• Basque: soziologia
• Belarusian: сацыяло́гія f (sacyjalóhija), сацыялёгія f (sacyjaljóhija), грамадазна́ўства n (hramadaznáwstva)
• Bengali: সমাজবিজ্ঞান (bn) (śomajbiggên)
• Bulgarian: социоло́гия (bg) f (sociológija)
• Burmese: လူမှုဗေဒ (luhmu.beda.)
• Catalan: sociologia (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 社會學 / 社会学 (se⁵ wui^6-2 hok⁶)

  Mandarin: 社會學 / 社会学 (zh) (shèhuìxué)

• Corsican: suciolugia f, sociolugia f, suciulugia f
• Czech: sociologie (cs) f
• Danish: sociologi (da) c
• Dutch: sociologie (nl) f
• Esperanto: sociologio
• Estonian: sotsioloogia
• Faroese: samfelagsfrøði f, sosiologi
• Finnish: sosiologia (fi)
• French: sociologie (fr) f
• Frisian:

  West Frisian: sosjology

• Galician: socioloxía (gl) f
• Georgian: სოციოლოგია (sociologia)
• German: Soziologie (de) f, Gesellschaftskunde f
• Greek: κοινωνιολογία (el) f (koinoniología)
• Gujarati: સમાજશાસ્ત્ર (samājśāstra)
• Hebrew: סוֹצִיוֹלוֹגִיָה (he) f (sotsyológya)
• Hindi: समाजशास्त्र (hi) m (samājśāstra)
• Hungarian: szociológia (hu)
• Icelandic: félagsfræði f
• Ido: sociologio (io)
• Indonesian: sosiologi (id)
• Irish: socheolaíocht f
• Italian: sociologia (it) f
• Japanese: 社会学 (ja) (しゃかいがく, shakaigaku)
• Kannada: ಸಮಾಜಶಾಸ್ತ್ರ (kn) (samājaśāstra)
• Kazakh: әлеуметтану (äleumettanu)
• Khmer: សង្គមវិទ្យា (sɑngkumvɨttyiə), សិក្សាសង្គម (səksaa sɑngkum)
• Korean: 사회학(社會學) (ko) (sahoehak)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: civaknasî (ku)

• Kyrgyz: социология (ky) (sotsiologiya)
• Lao: ສັງຄົມສາດ (lo) (sang khom sāt), ສັງຄົມວິທະຍາ (sang khom wi tha nyā)
• Latin: sociologia f
• Latvian: socioloģija f
• Lithuanian: sociologija (lt) f
• Macedonian: социологија f (sociologija)
• Malay: sosiologi (ms), ilmu masyarakat
• Malayalam: സമൂഹശാസ്ത്രം (samūhaśāstraṁ)
• Maltese: soċjoloġija
• Māori: mātauranga hapori
• Marathi: समाजशास्त्र (samājśāstra)
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: социологи (sociologi)

• Nepali: समाजशास्त्र (samājaśāstra)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: sosiologi m

  Nynorsk: sosiologi m

• Occitan: sociologia f
• Pashto: ټولنپوهنه (ps) f (ṭolənpohəna), سوسيولوژي (ps) f (sosioloži), سوسيالوجي f (sosiāloji)
• Persian: جامِعِه‌شِناسی (fa) (jâme'e-šenâsi), سوسیولوژی (sosiyoloži)
• Polish: socjologia (pl) f
• Portuguese: sociologia (pt) f
• Punjabi: ਸਮਾਜ ਸ਼ਾਸਤਰ (pa) (samāj śāstar)
• Romanian: sociologie (ro) f
• Russian: социоло́гия (ru) f (sociológija), обществове́дение (ru) n (obščestvovédenije)
• Sardinian: sotziologia f, sotziolozia f
• Scots: sociologie, sociology
• Scottish Gaelic: eòlas-comainn m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: социоло̀гија f

  Latin: sociològija (sh) f

• Slovak: sociológia f
• Slovene: sociologija (sl) f
• Spanish: sociología (es) f
• Swahili: sosholojia
• Swedish: sociologi (sv)
• Tagalog: sosyolohiya
• Tajik: ҷамъиятшиносӣ (tg) (jam'iyatšinosi), сотсиология (tg) (sotsiologiya), ҷомеашиносӣ (tg) (jomeašinosi)
• Tamil: சமூகவியல் (ta) (camūkaviyal)
• Tatar: социология (sotsiyoloğiyä)
• Telugu: సామాజిక శాస్త్రం (sāmājika śāstraṁ)
• Thai: สังคมวิทยา (sǎng-kom-wít-tá-yaa)
• Turkish: sosyoloji (tr)
• Turkmen: sosiologiýa
• Ukrainian: соціоло́гія (uk) f (sociolóhija), суспільствозна́вство n (suspilʹstvoznávstvo)
• Urdu: عِمْرانِیّات ('imrāniyyāt), سَماجِیات (samājiyāt)
• Uyghur: جەمئىيەتشۇناسلىق (jem'iyetshunasliq)
• Uzbek: sotsiologiya (uz)
• Vietnamese: xã hội học (vi) (社會學)
• Welsh: cymdeithaseg m
• Yiddish: סאָציאָלאָגיע f (sotsyologye)

See also

• anthropology
• psychology

Further reading

• Raymond Williams (1983), “Sociology”, in Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, revised American edition, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, published 1985, →ISBN, page 295.