Methodology is the set of methods and principles you use when you study a subject or do a particular kind of work — the “how,” and often the thinking behind the how. A scientist’s methodology might include experiments, measurements, and rules for what counts as evidence. A teacher’s methodology might be the principles behind how they teach. In careful use, a method is one way of doing something; methodology is the whole system, and sometimes the study of those methods. People do stretch it, though. In offices and student essays, methodology often just means “our methods,” and many readers accept that looser use. The word feels formal. You will hear it in universities, research, and reports more than in everyday chat.