The study of society — of people in groups, and of the rules, habits, classes, and powers that shape how they live. Sociology asks questions like: why do rich and poor children end up in different jobs? why do people marry later than before? what happens to a town when the factory closes? It is a school and university subject, and also a way of thinking. In a normal sentence it is uncountable: 'She studies sociology', not 'a sociology'. Outside the classroom, people use it loosely — 'the sociology of the office' means the unwritten social order of that office, who eats with whom, who is listened to. Notice that it was invented as a word, in French, by Auguste Comte in 1834; before that, English writers called this kind of work 'social physics', which tells you how much the early founders wanted it to look like a hard science. That ambition is still argued about today.