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Definition of "ethology" [e•thol•o•gy]

  • The scientific study of animal behavior, especially as it occurs in a natural environment. (noun)
  • The study of human ethos and its formation. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "ethology" in a sentence
  • "Male bonding is a term that is used in ethology, social science, and in general usage to describe patterns of friendship and/or cooperation in men (or in the case of ethology: males of various species)."
  • "Their breeding behaviour and how they and their chicks respond to stimuli is tremendously well studied, with the studies of Goethe, Tinbergen and others being classic, pioneering works in ethology."
  • "Griffin's agenda for the discipline he labeled “cognitive ethology” features the topic of animal consciousness and advocates a methodology, inherited from classical ethology, that is based in naturalistic observations of animal behavior (see Allen 2004)."