Cetology
[see-TA-lə-gee]
Part of speech: noun
Origin: Latin, 19th century
1.
The branch of zoology that deals with whales, dolphins, and porpoises.
Examples of Cetology in a sentence
"The marine biologist was specifically an expert in cetology."
"Captain Ahab was obsessed with cetology after his years of pursuing the white whale."
About Cetology
The Latin word for "whale," "cetus," joins with "-ology," the Latin suffix for "the study of a subject." In academics, an almost limitless amount of words are paired with "-ology," including "biology" ("the study of life"), "psychology" ("the study of how people think"), and "entomology" ("the study of insects").
Did you Know?
Cetology is the study of whales, dolphins, and porpoises, so a person who is committed to studying these animals is a cetologist. It's fair to say that a cetologist will have a deep love for and interest in whales — childhood fans of the movie "Free Willy" might have considered becoming such a scientist.
