Definition of pathology
plural pathologies
1
:the study of the essential nature of diseases and especially of the structural and functional changes produced by them
- studied plant pathology
2
:something abnormal:
a
:the structural and functional deviations from the normal that constitute disease or characterize a particular disease
- the pathology of pneumonia
b
:deviation from propriety or from an assumed normal state of something nonliving or nonmaterial
- the pathology of wine
c
:deviation giving rise to social ills
- connections between these pathologies … and crime
- —Wendy Kaminer
- social pathology
