Immunology

How to spell immunology

10 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce immunology

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does immunology mean?

1. nounThe branch of medicine and biology concerned with the immune system and the body's resistance to infection.

Immunology in a sentence

• She specialised in immunology after years of research on vaccines.

• The hospital opened a new department of immunology last spring.

Where does immunology come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word joins two ancestors. The first half comes from the Latin immunis, meaning 'exempt' or 'free from a burden', built from in- ('not') and munus ('duty, public service or obligation'); a Roman who was immunis was excused from taxes or civic duties. That sense of being free from something carried over into medicine, where 'immunity' came to mean being free from a disease. The second half is the familiar Greek-derived ending -logy, from logos, meaning 'word, reason or study'. The compound 'immunology' was assembled in the late nineteenth century as scientists began studying how the body resists infection. The doubled m in the middle is the trap, and it traces straight back to the Latin in- meeting munis, where the n assimilated into an m.

How the word is built

• immun- (from Latin immunis: exempt, free)
• -o- (connective vowel)
• -logy (study of, from Greek logos)