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

In a departure from previous years, all sections of the multidisciplinary festival will run at the same time, meaning the Film and TV festival will overlap with the business conference and music and comedy festivals. —Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 4 Dec. 2025

Designers will have to work with some of the climate scientists and become much more multidisciplinary. —Georgina Jedikovska, Interesting Engineering, 26 Nov. 2025

Finally, in December 2024, she was introduced to Amin, who leads a multidisciplinary team that took a better look at her condition. —Adrianna Rodriguez, USA Today, 25 Nov. 2025

The artist cited her Bengali heritage as an influence on her multidisciplinary approach to creativity, encompassing dance, music and acting. —Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 17 Nov. 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