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Meaning & use

esthesiology

noun·Advancedtechnicalraremedical

Last updated

UK/ˌiːsθiːziˈɒlədʒi/
US/ˌesθiːziˈɑːlədʒi/

Meanings

  1. noununcountabletechnicalmedical

    The scientific study of the senses and the way living things feel sensations such as touch, taste and sight.

    Grammar: Uncountable: esthesiology is a small field.

    Patterns

    • the study of esthesiology
    • a lecture on esthesiology

    The professor's lecture on esthesiology covered how nerves carry touch signals.

    Early researchers in esthesiology measured how much pressure a person could feel.

    Her thesis combined esthesiology with the study of pain.

  2. noununcountablemedicalspecialist

    The branch of medicine or psychology that deals with sensory perception and disorders of sensation.

    Grammar: Used when talking about the clinical side of sensation.

    Patterns

    • esthesiology and neurology

    Doctors in esthesiology study why some patients lose feeling in their fingers.

    Esthesiology textbooks describe tests for taste and smell.

    Interest in esthesiology grew when scientists mapped sensation in the brain.

Common combinations

study of esthesiology
The study of esthesiology looks at how we perceive touch.
research in esthesiology
Research in esthesiology helped design better prosthetics.
field of esthesiology
The field of esthesiology is small but growing.
esthesiology textbook
The esthesiology textbook has a chapter on taste.
esthesiology laboratory
The esthesiology laboratory measures sensitivity to heat.

Synonyms and how they differ

sensory science
Sensory science is a more familiar modern phrase and sounds less formal than esthesiology.
aesthesiology
Aesthesiology is the British spelling of exactly the same term.
sensory physiology
Sensory physiology emphasizes how the body's organs work, while esthesiology covers sensation as a whole.

Word family

esthesia noun
the ability to feel or perceive
esthesiologist noun
a person who studies sensation
esthesiometer noun
an instrument that measures how sensitive the skin is
anesthesia noun
loss of feeling, especially for surgery

Commonly confused: esthesiology or anesthesiology? esthesiology or esthetics?

esthesiology vs anesthesiology

Anesthesiology is the medical field of numbing patients for operations; esthesiology is the study of sensation itself.

esthesiology vs esthetics

Esthetics concerns beauty and art, even though it shares the Greek root for perception.

Practice

A researcher who studies how the skin, tongue and eyes detect sensations works in the field of ___.

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