Interdisciplinary

How to spell interdisciplinary

17 letters · 7 syllables

How to pronounce interdisciplinary

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does interdisciplinary mean?

1. adjectiveInvolving or combining two or more separate fields of study or expertise.

Interdisciplinary in a sentence

• The research grant funds an interdisciplinary team of engineers and biologists.

• The new degree takes an interdisciplinary approach, blending economics with psychology.

Where does interdisciplinary come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built from solidly Latin parts and assembled fairly recently in English. The prefix inter- means 'between' or 'among', while the core comes from the Latin disciplina, meaning 'instruction, training, or branch of knowledge', which itself grew from discipulus 'a pupil or learner' and ultimately from discere 'to learn'. By the time English had 'discipline' as a noun for an organised field of study, the obvious next step was to coin an adjective for work that crosses several such fields. 'Interdisciplinary' duly appeared in academic English in the early twentieth century, becoming common from the 1930s onward as universities began pairing subjects. The 'sci' spelled letters in the middle echo the same path as 'discipline' and 'disciple', which is precisely the stretch where writers stumble: the c is silent and easy to drop.

How the word is built

• inter- (between, among)
• disciplin (field of study, from disciplina: instruction)
• -ary (adjective suffix)