Radiology

How to spell radiology

9 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce radiology

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does radiology mean?

1. nounThe branch of medicine that uses radiation and imaging, such as X-rays and scans, to diagnose and treat disease.

Radiology in a sentence

• The hospital expanded its radiology department to handle more scans.

• After her injury she was sent to radiology for an X-ray of her wrist.

Where does radiology come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is a modern scientific coinage that stitches together two ancient roots. The first part comes from the Latin radius, which literally meant a 'staff' or 'spoke of a wheel' and, by extension, a 'ray' or 'beam' of light; the same root gives us 'radius', 'radiate', and 'radiation'. The ending is the familiar Greek -logia, meaning 'the study or science of', which English attaches to countless fields such as biology and geology. The word was assembled around the turn of the twentieth century, shortly after Wilhelm Roentgen's discovery of X-rays in 1895 created a brand new branch of medicine devoted to imaging the body with radiation. So although the parts are classical, the whole word is genuinely young, born from the technology of medical imaging. For spelling, it helps to picture the hidden 'radio' inside it, since the trap is the unstressed 'di-o' middle, easily slurred when spoken.

How the word is built

• radio- (from Latin radius: ray, beam)
• -logy (Greek -logia: study or science of)