endocrinology

noun

en·​do·​cri·​nol·​o·​gy ˌen-də-kri-ˈnä-lə-jē 

-ˌkrī-

: a branch of medicine concerned with the structure, function, and disorders of the endocrine glands

endocrinologist

ˌen-də-kri-ˈnä-lə-jist 

-ˌkrī-

noun

Examples of endocrinology in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

But Christoph Buettner, MD, PhD, the chief of the division of endocrinology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, New Jersey, says that’s not a huge increase from tirzepatide. —Emily Kay Votruba, EverydayHealth.com, 20 Mar. 2026

But the body also needs a steady level of calcium in the blood, explained Matthew Drake, MD, PhD, chief of endocrinology and metabolic bone disease at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. —Jamie Ducharme, Health, 9 Feb. 2026

Today, as an associate professor of medicine (endocrinology and metabolism) and of cellular and molecular physiology at Yale School of Medicine, Perry investigates how those same metabolic forces influence cancer. —Avi Patel, Hartford Courant, 30 Jan. 2026

The success of the endocrinology program will be measured by number of patients served but also disease management such as patients' blood glucose levels over time using tests for A1C levels, Butler said. —Nicole Villalpando, Austin American Statesman, 23 Jan. 2026

Word History

Etymology

probably borrowed from Italian endocrinologia, from endocrine endocrine entry 1 + -o- -o- + -logia -logy

Note: According to some sources coined by the Italian physician Nicola Pende (1880-1970) in 1909 (e.g., in Garabed Eknoyan, "Emergence of the concept of endocrine function and endocrinology," Advances in Chronic Kidney Disease, vol. 11, no. 4 [October, 2004], p. 375), though without bibliographic citation. Pende used the word in the title of his treatise Endocrinologia: patologia e clinica degli organi a secrezione interna (Milan and Bologna, 1916).

First Known Use

circa 1913, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for endocrinology

• bacteriology
• biotechnology
• dialectology
• ecclesiology
• epistemology
• geochronology
• geomorphology
• histopathology
• hydrogeology
• kinesiology
• meteorology
• microbiology

Medical Definition

endocrinology

noun

en·​do·​cri·​nol·​o·​gy ˌen-də-kri-ˈnäl-ə-jē, -ˌkrī- 

plural endocrinologies

: a science dealing with the endocrine glands

endocrinologist

-jəst 

noun