terminology

English

Etymology

From French terminologie or German Terminologie and their source, New Latin terminologia, from Medieval Latin terminus (“a term”) + -ologia (“study of”), from -o- (“(interconsonantal)”) + -logia, from Ancient Greek -λογία (-logía, “-logy, branch of study, to speak”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌtɜː.məˈnɒl.ə.d͡ʒi/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˌtɝ.məˈnɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˌtɜː.məˈnɔl.ə.d͡ʒi/

Noun

terminology (countable and uncountable, plural terminologies)

1. A treatise on terms, especially those used in a specialised field.
2. The set of terms actually used in any business, art, science, or the like; nomenclature; technical terms.
   • [1921 [1919], H. L. Mencken, chapter 27, in The American Language, 2nd edition, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, →OCLC:

     Ad for advertisement is struggling hard for general recognition; some of its compounds, e. g., ad-writer, want-ad, display-ad, ad-card, ad-rate, column-ad and ad-man, are already accepted in technical terminology.]

   • 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

     [The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. […] Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, and that in several cases these bacteria were dividing and thus, by the perverse arithmetic of biological terminology, multiplying.

   • 2022 October 23, Pamela Paul, “Let’s Say Gay”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     Language is always changing — but it shouldn’t become inflexible, especially when new terminologies, in the name of inclusion, sometimes wind up making others feel excluded.

3. The scientific study of such terms.

Synonyms

• nomenclature, vocabulary, language, wording, phraseology, jargon, lingo, -ese

Coordinate terms

• glossary

Derived terms

• terminological
• terminologically
• terminologist

Related terms

• argot
• jargon
• terminism
• terminist

Translations

Translations

• Albanian: terminologji (sq) f
• Arabic: عِلْمُ المُصْطَلَحِ m (ʕilmu l-muṣṭalaḥi)
• Armenian: տերմինաբանություն (hy) (terminabanutʻyun)
• Asturian: terminoloxía f
• Belarusian: тэрмінало́гія f (terminalóhija), тэрміналёгія f (terminaljóhija)
• Bulgarian: терминоло́гия (bg) f (terminológija)
• Catalan: terminologia (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 術語學／术语学 (zh) (shùyǔxué)

• Czech: terminologie (cs) f
• Danish: terminologi (da) c
• Dutch: terminologie (nl) f
• Esperanto: terminologio
• Estonian: terminoloogia (et)
• Finnish: terminologia (fi)
• French: terminologie (fr) f
• Galician: terminoloxía (gl) f
• Georgian: ტერმინოლოგია (ṭerminologia)
• German: Terminologie (de) f
• Greek: ορολογία (el) f (orología)
• Hebrew: טֶרְמִינוֹלוֹגְיָה (he) f (terminológya)
• Hungarian: terminológia (hu)
• Ido: terminaro (io)
• Indonesian: terminologi (id), peristilahan (id)
• Italian: terminologia (it) f
• Khmer: យត្តស័ព្ទវិជ្ជា (yeatta’sap viccie)
• Korean: 술어학(術語學) (sureohak)
• Latvian: terminoloģija f
• Lithuanian: terminologija f
• Macedonian: терминологија f (terminologija)
• Malay: terminologi, peristilahan
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: terminologi m

  Nynorsk: terminologi m

• Persian: اصطلاح‌شناسی (estelâh-šenâsi), ترمینولوژی (terminoloži)
• Polish: terminologia (pl) f
• Portuguese: terminologia (pt) f
• Romanian: terminologie (ro) f
• Russian: терминоло́гия (ru) f (terminológija)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Roman: terminològija (sh) f, nàzivoslōvlje (sh) n

• Slovak: terminológia f
• Slovene: terminologija f
• Spanish: terminología (es)
• Swedish: terminologi (sv) c
• Tagalog: katawagan
• Ukrainian: терміноло́гія (uk) f (terminolóhija)

terms used in any business, art, etc

• Arabic: مُصْطَلَح (ar) m (muṣṭalaḥ)
• Asturian: terminoloxía f
• Azerbaijani: terminologiya
• Belarusian: тэрмінало́гія f (terminalóhija)
• Bulgarian: терминоло́гия (bg) f (terminológija)
• Catalan: terminologia (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 用語／用语 (zh) (yòngyǔ), 術語／术语 (zh) (shùyǔ)

• Czech: názvosloví (cs) n, terminologie (cs) f
• Danish: terminologi (da) c
• Dutch: terminologie (nl) f
• Estonian: terminoloogia (et)
• Finnish: termistö (fi), käsitteistö, terminologia (fi)
• French: terminologie (fr) f
• Galician: terminoloxía (gl) f
• German: Terminologie (de) f, Fachsprache (de) f
• Greek: ορολογία (el) f (orología)
• Hungarian: szaknyelv (hu), szakkifejezések pl
• Ido: terminaro (io)
• Indonesian: terminologi (id), peristilahan (id)
• Italian: terminologia (it) f
• Japanese: 用語 (ja) (ようご, yōgo), 専門語 (ja) (せんもんご, semmongo), 術語 (ja) (じゅつご, jutsugo)
• Khmer: យត្តស័ព្ទវិជ្ជា (yeatta’sap viccie), បច្ចេកសព្ទ (km) (pacceeka’ sap), យត្តស័ព្ទ (yeatta’sap)
• Korean: 전문 용어(專門用語) (jeonmun yong'eo), 용어(用語) (ko) (yong'eo), 전문어(專門語) (ko) (jeonmuneo)
• Latvian: terminoloģija f
• Lithuanian: terminologija f, terminija f
• Malay: terminologi, peristilahan
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: terminologi m

  Nynorsk: terminologi m

• Persian: اصطلاح (fa) (estelâh)
• Polish: terminologia (pl) f
• Portuguese: terminologia (pt) f
• Romanian: terminologie (ro) f
• Russian: терминоло́гия (ru) f (terminológija)
• Scots: terminology
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Roman: terminològija (sh) f, názīvlje (sh) n

• Spanish: terminología (es)
• Swahili: istilahi
• Swedish: terminologi (sv) c
• Tagalog: katawagan, tawag
• Tajik: истилоҳ (istiloh)
• Turkish: terminoloji (tr)
• Ukrainian: терміноло́гія (uk) f (terminolóhija)

Further reading

• “terminology”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “terminology”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Scots

Etymology

From English terminology.

Noun

terminology (plural terminologies)

1. terminology