Standard Lemma guide

rheology

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ɹiːˈɒlədʒi/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: R IY0 AO1 L AH0 JH IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

The branch of physics that studies the deformation and flow of matter.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: natural-sciences, physical-sciences, physics

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

the branch of physics that studies the deformation and flow of matter

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: physics, natural philosophy

History

Etymology

Coined by American scientist Eugene C. Bingham in 1920, following a suggestion by a colleague, Markus Reiner; inspired by aphorism πάντα ῥεῖ (pánta rheî, “everything flows”) by Simplicius of Cilicia. Formed from Ancient Greek ῥέω (rhéō, “flow”) + -logy (“study of”, suffix ultimately from Ancient Greek). See also rheo-.

Across languages

Translations

18 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: reologia — physics of the deformation and flow of matter
  • Chinese Mandarin: 流變學 /流变学 (liúbiànxué) — physics of the deformation and flow of matter
  • Dutch: reologie — physics of the deformation and flow of matter
  • Finnish: reologia — physics of the deformation and flow of matter
  • French: rhéologie — physics of the deformation and flow of matter
  • German: Rheologie — physics of the deformation and flow of matter
  • German: Fließkunde — physics of the deformation and flow of matter
  • Icelandic: flotfræði — physics of the deformation and flow of matter
  • Irish: sreabheolaíocht — physics of the deformation and flow of matter
  • Irish: réa-eolaíocht — physics of the deformation and flow of matter
  • Italian: reologia — physics of the deformation and flow of matter
  • Portuguese: reologia — physics of the deformation and flow of matter
  • Romanian: reologie — physics of the deformation and flow of matter
  • Russian: реоло́гия (reológija) — physics of the deformation and flow of matter
  • Spanish: reología — physics of the deformation and flow of matter
  • Tagalog: paladaluyan — physics of the deformation and flow of matter
  • Tamil: சடப்பாயவியல் (caṭappāyaviyal) — physics of the deformation and flow of matter
  • Vietnamese: lưu biến học — physics of the deformation and flow of matter