õpetuste

Õpetuste is the genitive plural of the Estonian noun õpetus, which denotes a system of beliefs, doctrine, or instruction. The term is used to refer to the body of teachings that belongs to a person, a religious tradition, a school of thought, or an educational framework. The nominative form is õpetused (teachings); the genitive plural õpetuste is used when speaking about “of the teachings” or “the teachings” in a possessive sense, as in kiriku õpetuste mõju (the influence of church teachings). The word õpetus is derived from õpe (education, learning) with the suffix -tus, yielding a noun meaning teaching or instruction.

In usage, õpetuste appears in discussions of religion, philosophy, ethics, and pedagogy to denote the corpus of authoritative statements or guidelines associated with a tradition. For example, one might refer to kristlike õpetuste (Christian teachings) or filosoofiliste õpetuste (philosophical teachings). The term is neutral and descriptive, not inherently positive or negative, and it can cover formal creeds as well as informal didactic content.

See also: Õpetus; Õpetused.