Psychologist

How to spell psychologist

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce psychologist

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does psychologist mean?

1. nounA person who studies the mind and behaviour, often professionally treating or assessing people.

Psychologist in a sentence

• The clinic referred him to a psychologist for an assessment.

• The company hired an occupational psychologist to improve staff wellbeing.

Where does psychologist come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word is built from two Greek pieces: psyche, which originally meant 'breath' and came to mean the soul, mind, or life force, and logos, which meant 'word', 'reason', or 'study'. The combining element psycho- joined with -logy to form 'psychology', a term coined in the 1600s for the study of the mind, and the agent suffix -ist then produced 'psychologist' for a person who practises that study; English settled on this form in the 1800s as the discipline became a profession. The silent opening sounds are the giveaway trap: the 'p' before 's' is the Greek letter psi, written here as 'ps', and the 'ch' spells the Greek chi though it is pronounced like a 'k'. The same psyche root survives in 'psyche', 'psychic', and 'psychiatry', while the logos root sits inside 'biology', 'geology', and countless other field names. Remembering that the 'p' and the hard 'ch' are both honest leftovers from Greek spelling helps anchor the awkward 'psy-cho' opening.

How the word is built

• psycho- (from Greek psyche: mind, soul)
• -log- (from logos: study, account)
• -ist (one who practises)