How to Use etiology in a Sentence

etiology

noun
Definition of etiologynext
  • Healthspanners want to understand the etiologies of cancer and heart disease and then block them.
    — Tad Friend, The New Yorker, 24 Mar. 2017
  • The etiology of the crime, and the punishment that may follow, stretch past the experiences of two men in the 10th arrondissement.
    — Jason Farago, The New York Review of Books, 18 Apr. 2019
  • Even in the hands of forensic pathologists, the exact etiology may never be known with certainty.
    — James Hamblin, The Atlantic, 16 June 2017
  • But Alker has been defying the clock that has often been the etiology of agony for professional athletes.
    — Alan Blinder, New York Times, 17 May 2023
  • One way to clear up that uncertainty would be to identify the disease’s etiology—the underlying cause of the problem, assuming there’s just one.
    — Jacob Brogan, Smithsonian, 19 May 2017
  • The etiology of prostate cancer (PCa) is poorly understood.
    — Seriously Science, Discover Magazine, 29 Oct. 2014
  • Those who know the most about it are inside this hotel, discussing stuttering etiology and neurology, fears and challenges, and following Róisín through the streets of Atlanta in an effort to proclaim the word stutter.
    — Rachel Hoge, Longreads, 4 Aug. 2017
  • But the true etiology of Christina’s disease remains a medical enigma, one that continues to be explored in academic medicine.
    — Rebecca Kreston, Discover Magazine, 30 Mar. 2016
  • There have always been cases of hepatitis in children for which a cause cannot be found — such cases are labeled pediatric hepatitis of unknown etiology.
    — Helen Branswell, STAT, 18 June 2022
  • Bray rejects this etiology of the disease, which implies that the anorexic, like so many Madame Bovaries before her, suffers simply from an inability to distinguish fact from fiction.
    — Anna Shechtman, The New Yorker, 20 Dec. 2021
  • The dominant theory holds that C.F.S. may not have a single etiology but may instead be a dysfunctional state of the immune system triggered by one of several ailments.
    — Mike Mariani, The New Yorker, 3 Sep. 2019
  • Impotence in the 18th and 19th century: concepts of etiology and approaches to therapy.
    — Ncbi Rofl, Discover Magazine, 23 Mar. 2012
  • Part two treats of abstractions: memory, self-consciousness, the etiology of physical and emotional pain.
    — Stefan Beck, National Review, 3 Sep. 2020
  • Chronic kidney disease has swept Central America; again, the etiology of the epidemic has been described as mysterious.
    — Vann R. Newkirk Ii, The Atlantic, 15 Oct. 2020
  • The psychological descriptions are often an attempt to create a narrative just to make sense of what’s happening when the etiology isn’t clearly understood.
    — New York Times, 23 June 2017
  • Most cases of intractable paroxysmal sneezing reported in the literature occur in adolescents and appear to have a psychogenic etiology.
    — Seriously Science, Discover Magazine, 19 Aug. 2016
  • All were treated with antibiotic drops and the infections quickly resolved, pointing to a bacterial etiology.
    — Rebecca Kreston, Discover Magazine, 1 Mar. 2016
  • The goal of One Health is to develop policies and interventions that account for social, political and economic realities, not just disease etiology.
    — Daniel Fernandez, Smithsonian, 4 June 2018
  • These pathological limelight-seekers all agree that the etiology of the affliction is simple: the patient’s gross recklessness and irresponsible behavior.
    — Gerard Baker, WSJ, 5 Oct. 2020
  • Unlike with an infectious etiology, traveler’s constipation tends to arise from disruptions to your gut’s normal routine.
    — Washington Post, 5 May 2022
  • Any important disease, whose physical etiology is not understood, and for which treatment is ineffectual, tends to be awash in significance.
    — Ellen McGirt, Fortune, 18 Mar. 2020
  • Not only are there definite answers about the etiology of mental illnesses, but the illnesses themselves are definitive identity markers.
    — WIRED, 14 Sep. 2022
  • However, there is plausible evidence for an infectious etiology, including observations that the disease is known to occur in outbreaks.
    — Vincent Racaniello, Discover Magazine, 12 Jan. 2012
  • Butler said this event could reveal that adenovirus 41 is responsible for a portion of pediatric hepatitis cases of unknown etiology, small numbers of which occur annually.
    — Helen Branswell, STAT, 9 May 2022
  • In the end, the etiology of eating disorders remains infuriatingly complex.
    — Kate Willsky, Washington Post, 26 July 2022
  • At autopsy, researchers have reported the presence of viral protein in the actual heart muscle of deceased patients—so viral involvement is possible, though the true etiology may be multifactorial.
    — Carolyn Barber, Fortune, 14 Dec. 2020
  • In social terms, regardless of its etiology, memory loss may be a way of coping with harsh reality.
    — Elizabeth W. Markson, Growing Old in America, (1985) 1987
  • She was referred for evaluation of an allergic etiology before continuing her workup with a computed tomographic head scan.
    — Seriously Science, Discover Magazine, 19 Aug. 2016
  • Like most just-so stories, this appealing etiology has disintegrated under scrutiny.
    — Richard Pallardy, Discover Magazine, 3 Nov. 2021
  • Most repetitive behaviors, regardless of etiology, begin in childhood.
    — Kate Murphy, ajc, 27 Sep. 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'etiology.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: