Meaning & use
ethnological
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Meaning
adjectivebefore a nounformalspecialist
Relating to the scientific study and comparison of different peoples, their cultures, customs and origins.
Grammar: Almost always comes before a noun: an ethnological museum.
Patterns
- an ethnological study of something
- ethnological research on something
The museum holds a large ethnological collection from the Pacific islands.
She wrote an ethnological study of marriage customs across three regions.
Early ethnological work often compared the traditions of distant societies.
Common combinations
- ethnological museum
- The ethnological museum displays masks and tools from many continents.
- ethnological study
- His ethnological study took five years of fieldwork.
- ethnological collection
- The university's ethnological collection is open to researchers.
- ethnological research
- Ethnological research can shed light on the origins of festivals.
- ethnological perspective
- From an ethnological perspective, the ritual has older roots.
Synonyms and how they differ
- ethnographic
- Ethnographic stresses detailed description of one group, while ethnological suggests comparing many groups.
- anthropological
- Anthropological is wider and covers all aspects of humans, not only peoples and cultures.
- cultural
- Cultural is everyday and general, with none of the scientific, comparative sense of ethnological.
Word family
Commonly confused: ethnological or ethnographic? ethnological or ethnical?
ethnological vs ethnographic
Ethnographic describes the in-depth recording of a single culture; ethnological compares cultures to find patterns.
ethnological vs ethnical
Ethnical is a rare variant of ethnic and does not mean the study of peoples.
Practice
The curator arranged an ___ exhibition comparing wedding customs across several continents.
Choose one answer.
Comparing customs of different peoples is ethnological. Geological is about rocks and economical is about saving money, which are tempting look-alikes.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “ethnological”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.