paleontology

Alternative forms

palæontology (chiefly British)
palaeontology (British)

Etymology

Attested since 1836 (as palæontology). From French paléontologie (attested since 1822). By surface analysis, paleo- (“ancient”) +‎ onto- (“being”) +‎ -logy (“study”).

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌpeɪli.ənˈtɒləd͡ʒi/, /ˌpæli.ənˈtɒləd͡ʒi/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˌpeɪli.ənˈtɑləd͡ʒi/

Noun

paleontology (uncountable)

(American spelling) Study of the forms of life existing in prehistoric or geologic times, especially as represented by fossils.

Hypernyms

humanities

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

study of prehistoric forms of life

Albanian: paleontologjí (sq) f, paleontologjía f
Armenian: հնէաբանություն (hy) (hnēabanutʻyun)
Asturian: paleontoloxía f
Bulgarian: палеонтология f (paleontologija)
Burmese: နိခါတကဗေဒ (my) (ni.hkata.ka.beda.)
Catalan: paleontologia f
Chinese:
Mandarin: 古生物學 / 古生物学 (zh) (gǔshēngwùxué)
Czech: paleontologie (cs) f
Danish: palæontologi (da) c
Dutch: paleontologie (nl) f
Esperanto: paleontologio (eo)
Finnish: paleontologia (fi)
French: paléontologie (fr) f
Galician: paleontoloxía (gl) f
German: Paläontologie (de) f
Greek: παλαιοντολογία (el) (palaiontología)
Hindi: जीवाश्मिकी (jīvāśmikī)
Icelandic: steingervingafræði f
Indonesian: paleontologi (id)
Irish: pailé-ointeolaíocht f
Italian: paleontologia (it) f
Japanese: 古生物学 (ja) (こせいぶつがく, koseibutsugaku)
Khmer: បាសាណិភូតវិទ្យា (baasaanə pʰuut vityie)
Korean: 고생물학(古生物學) (ko) (gosaengmulhak)
Latvian: paleontoloģija f
Lithuanian: paleontologija f
Macedonian: палеонтологија f (paleontologija)
Malay: kaji fosil, paleontologi (ms)
Maori: mātai mātātoka
Mongolian:
Cyrillic: палеонтологи (mn) (paleontologi)

Mongolian: ᠫᠠᠯᠧᠣᠨ᠋ᠲ᠋ᠣᠯᠣᠭᠢ (palēontologi)
Norwegian:
Bokmål: paleontologi (no) m

Nynorsk: paleontologi m
Occitan: paleontologia (oc) f
Polish: paleontologia (pl) f
Portuguese: paleontologia (pt) f
Romanian: paleontologie (ro) f
Russian: палеонтоло́гия (ru) f (paleontológija)
Spanish: paleontología (es) f
Swahili: paleontolojia
Swedish: paleontologi (sv) c
Thai: บรรพชีวินวิทยา (ban-pá-chii-win-wít-tá-yaa)
Vietnamese: cổ sinh vật học (古生物學)
Volapük: fösilav (vo)
Yiddish: פּאַלעאָנטאָלאָגיע f (paleontologye)