A cytologist is not the study itself. The scientific study of cells from living things is cytology; a cytologist is the person who does that work. Cells are the tiny living units that make up plants, animals, and our bodies. A cytologist looks at cells — often under a microscope — to describe what they are like and whether they look healthy. In hospitals this can mean reading cells from a smear test or from tissue, and then writing a careful report. It is a specialist job title, not an everyday word. Though actually, in many labs the same kind of work is done by people called cytotechnologists or pathologists; the borders between these job names are messier than a textbook box. Cyto- here means “cell.” It looks a little like cyst (a lump with liquid), but that is a different word with a different job.