Estudo

Estudo is a Portuguese noun that refers to the act or process of studying and to the result of that activity, as well as to a field of study or a body of knowledge within a subject. It is used in everyday speech to denote ongoing learning, as in tempo de estudo or dedicating time to estudar. It can also mean a formal piece of research or an analysis, such as quando se diz “este estudo apresenta resultados”.

Etymology traces estudo to the Latin studium, meaning zeal, effort, or pursuit, and the term spread through Portuguese with the sense of application to learning and inquiry. In practice, estudo can denote diverse ideas: the practice of learning a language, the accumulated academic work of a person (os seus estudos), a field of knowledge (estudos de engenharia), or a specific scholarly work (um estudo publicado, such as um estudo clínico).

In academic and professional contexts, the word appears in compound forms. Examples include estudo de caso (case study), estudo estatístico (statistical study), and estudo clínico (clinical study). When referring to education systems, the phrase area de estudo or campo de estudo is often used to describe a particular subject area, while estudante or aluno denotes the person engaged in that study. Overall, estudo is a versatile term that encompasses learning activities, research outputs, and organized domains of knowledge within Portuguese-speaking communities. See also related terms such as estudar, estudante, and pesquisa.