Theological

How to spell theological

11 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce theological

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does theological mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to the study of God, religion, or religious belief and doctrine.

Theological in a sentence

• The seminary offers a rigorous theological education for future clergy.

• The two churches differ on a single theological point about salvation.

Where does theological come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek theos, meaning 'god', combined with logos, a wonderfully flexible word that meant 'word', 'reason', or 'account', and which gives us the '-logy' ending in dozens of fields of study. The Greeks formed theologia to mean the study or reasoned discussion of the divine, and the Romans took it up as the Latin theologia. English acquired the family through French and Latin in the late medieval period, with the adjective 'theological' appearing in the 1500s as scholars wrote in English about church doctrine. The same theos root sits inside 'atheist' (literally 'without god') and 'pantheon' (a temple for 'all the gods'), while the logos root powers everything from 'biology' to 'logic'. The spelling trap is the unstressed 'eo' pairing at the front, since speakers tend to slur 'thee-uh' and may drop a letter, plus the soft 'g' in '-logical' that sounds like a 'j'.

How the word is built

• theo- (god)
• log (word, study, reasoning)
• -ical (adjective suffix)