teratology

1 9.9

The study of birth defects and abnormal development in people and animals

noun
/ˌtɛrəˈtɑlədʒi/

Specialized

: teratología

Teratology is important for understanding congenital abnormalities in human development.

Examples

Acknowledgements: This paper was presented in part at the June 2006 annual meeting of the Organization for Teratology Specialists.

Academic text (2008)
My specialties are audiology, mycology, serology, teratology, embryology, psychology, zoology.

Pete's Dragon (1977)
The field of teratology helps identify birth defects and their causes.
Researchers in teratology study the effects of environmental factors on fetal development.

Surface Forms

teratology singular

teratologies plural

Morphology

teratology = terato + logy

Although the suffix '-logy' means 'study of', the combining form 'terato-' is not transparent to most learners, so the whole term is not guessable from its parts.

Etymology

Teratology comes from the old Greek root teras 'monster' or 'wonder' and the ending -ology 'study', the same ending you see in biology and psychology. So teratology literally means the 'study of monsters' in an older sense, and today it refers to the study of unusual birth changes or birth defects.