speleology

English

Etymology

From French spéléologie, coined by Émile Rivière in 1890. The word can be broken down as speleo- +‎ -logy.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

speleology (usually uncountable, plural speleologies)

1. The scientific study of caves.
2. The recreational activity of exploring caves.

Derived terms

• biospeleology
• speleologist

Related terms

• speleological
• spelunk

Translations

scientific study of caves

• Albanian: speleologji f
• Bulgarian: спелеоло́гия (bg) f (speleológija)
• Catalan: espeleologia f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 洞穴學 / 洞穴学 (zh) (dòngxuéxué)

• Czech: speleologie (cs) f
• Dutch: speleologie (nl) f
• Esperanto: speleologio
• Finnish: speleologia (fi), luolatutkimus
• French: spéléologie (fr) f
• German: Speläologie (de), Speleologie, Höhlenforschung (de), Höhlenkunde (de)
• Greek: σπηλαιολογία (el) f (spilaiología)
• Hungarian: szpeleológia (hu), barlangtan (hu)
• Japanese: 洞穴学 (ja) (どうけつがく, dōketsugaku)
• Mongolian: ᠠᠭᠤᠢ
  ᠶᠢᠨ
  ᠰᠤᠳᠤᠯᠤᠯ (aɣui yin sudulul), агуйн судлал (agujn sudlal)
• Polish: speleologia (pl) f
• Portuguese: espeleologia f
• Romanian: speologie (ro) f
• Russian: спелеоло́гия (ru) f (speleológija)
• Serbo-Croatian: speleologija (sh) f
• Slovak: speleológia (sk) f
• Spanish: espeleología (es) f
• Swedish: speleologi (sv) c
• Tagalog: palayungiban
• Volapük: lekevav
• Welsh: ogofeg f

recreational activity of exploring caves — see also spelunking

• Catalan: espeleologia f
• Finnish: luolatutkimus
• Hungarian: barlangkutatás (hu), barlangászat (hu)
• Spanish: espeleísmo m (rare)
• Welsh: ogofa m

See also

• caving
• potholing