etiology

Meaning of etiology: Etiology is the study or identification of what causes a disease, an essential step in guiding accurate diagnosis and further evaluation.

Definition of etiology

Etiology is the cause or origin of a disease, as well as the study of causes of disease more broadly. Identifying the etiology of a condition means determining the underlying factor or factors responsible for it, which can include an infectious agent, a genetic change, an environmental exposure, or a combination of contributing causes.

Some conditions have a single, well-established etiology, while others have multiple possible causes, and a condition without an identifiable cause despite thorough evaluation is often described as being of unknown or idiopathic etiology. Determining etiology is an important part of clinical evaluation because it often guides what further testing is needed and how a condition is expected to behave.

The word is used across many specialties, from infectious disease, where etiology often refers to a specific organism, to oncology and genetics, where etiology may involve a combination of inherited and acquired factors.