multidisciplinary

adjective

mul·​ti·​dis·​ci·​plin·​ary ˌməl-tē-ˈdi-sə-plə-ˌner-ē 

-ˌtī-,

 especially British  -ˌdi-sə-ˈpli-nə-rē

: combining or involving more than one discipline or field of study : interdisciplinary

Treatment requires a multidisciplinary approach involving physicians, nutritionists, psychologists, trainers, and gynecologists …

—Michelle L. Cameron Donaldson

However, the task of interpreting such spectra … will take a multidisciplinary team of astrophysicists, Earth scientists, climate scientists, and biologists.

—Sarah Scoles

Indeed, nanotechnology may change the way we think about mechanical engineering altogether, making it a more multidisciplinary field, one as concerned with atomic-level effects as electrical engineering or chemistry is.

—Stephen L. Girshick and Arun Majumdar

Did you know?

A discipline is a field of study. So a multidisciplinary (or interdisciplinary) course is a team-taught course in which students are asked to understand a single subject as it's seen by two or more traditional disciplines. Multidisciplinary teaching can open students' eyes to different views of a subject that they had never considered before. A multidisciplinary panel discussion, on the other hand, presents views from scholars in different fields but may leave any merging of the information to the audience.

Examples of multidisciplinary in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Solange will teach a course in collaboration with her multidisciplinary institution Saint Heron, USC Thornton dean Jason King and other faculty members on music curation. —Heran Mamo, Billboard, 14 Oct. 2025

The event, a program of Artis-Naples, a multidisciplinary arts organization, offers a slate of 60 international fiction and nonfiction films chosen from among 1,000 submissions. —Matthew Carey, Deadline, 13 Oct. 2025

Tamakan, a multidisciplinary design house and digital archive, explores how traditional culture and contemporary media intersect, a mission reflected in the workshop’s fusion of heritage and modern technique. —Essie Assibu, Variety, 10 Oct. 2025

These breakthroughs highlight the importance of multidisciplinary and international collaboration in driving medical progress. —Christophe Mouton, MSNBC Newsweek, 8 Oct. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1944, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for multidisciplinary

• cardiopulmonary
• interdisciplinary
• postrevolutionary
• prerevolutionary
• accessary
• adversary
• ancillary
• arbitrary
• aviary
• axillary
• beriberi
• breviary