neology

N1E1O1L1O1G2Y4

noun

The study or art of neologizing (creating new words).

Scrabble 11

Meanings

nounneology (countable and uncountable, plural neologies)

plural neologies

  1. countableuncountableThe study or art of neologizing (creating new words).
    1 more example

    The word burned through the thin, dry-timbered wall of political neology in 1984, as Senator John Glenn’s campaign manager in South Carolina, John Lawson, told the A.P. that Glenn’s campaign “considered six Deep South states to be the crucial states for Glenn — the fire wall, if you will, between Mondale and the nomination.”

    2008 February 24, William Safire, “Bird-Dog Minute”, in New York Times
  2. countablehistoricaluncountableA reformist school of 18th- and 19th-century Christian theology influenced by doctrinal rationalism and the methods of historical criticism.

    What else can be the tendency of such miserably gratuitous assertions, but to plant the pernicious germs of Continental and Anglican neology and rationalism in the breasts of fledgling “ministers” of the Church?

    1876, Moses Margoliouth, The Lord’s Prayer No Adaptation of Existing Jewish Petitions […], page 146
    1 more example

    Neology was the most influential religious movement during the second half of the eighteenth century in Protestant Germany. […] The adherents of the movement sought true Christianity, or natural religion, by way of historical-critical study of the Bible and critical examination of Christian doctrines.

    1995, Sabine Roehr, A Primer on German Enlightenment […], →ISBN, page 69

Synonyms & antonyms

nouna newly invented word or phrase

Broader

nounthe act of inventing a word or phrase

Broader

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

From neo- + -logy. In the theological sense, originally implying its proponents were innovators departing from religious tradition.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Catalan neologia
  • neologiathe study or art of neologizing (creating new words)
German Neologismus
  • Neologismusthe study or art of neologizing (creating new words)
Icelandic nýyrðasmíð
  • nýyrðasmíðthe study or art of neologizing (creating new words)
Spanish neología
  • neologíathe study or art of neologizing (creating new words)
Cite this entry
APA

neology. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/neology

MLA

“neology.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/neology. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “neology,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/neology.

Source: neology on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.