What does ergonomics mean?
Ergonomics is the scientific study of how people interact with their working environment—their tools, equipment, tasks, and physical surroundings—with the aim of designing these elements to suit human capabilities and limitations rather than forcing humans to adapt to poorly conceived designs. Drawing on anatomy, physiology, psychology, and engineering, the field addresses everything from chair height and monitor placement to the cognitive load of control panels and the prevention of repetitive strain injuries. The word derives from the Greek ergon ('work') and nomos ('natural law'), literally meaning 'the laws of work'. Practitioners known as ergonomists or human-factors specialists work across industries, from office furniture and vehicle cockpits to medical devices and software interfaces. In everyday usage, 'ergonomics' often appears informally to describe how comfortable or well-designed a product feels, as in praising the ergonomics of a keyboard or kitchen tool.
nounThe scientific study of people's efficiency in their working environment, concerned with designing equipment, systems, and workplaces to fit the human body and its capabilities.
- The scientific discipline that studies human capabilities and limitations and applies this knowledge to design equipment, systems, and jobs for safety, comfort, and efficiency.
- Informally, the ergonomic quality or suitability of a particular product or arrangement (often in phrases like 'good ergonomics' or 'the ergonomics of this chair').
"Good ergonomics can prevent the back and wrist injuries that plague office workers who spend hours at a desk."
"After her wrist pain worsened, the company brought in an ergonomics consultant to redesign her workstation."
"The new aircraft cockpit was praised for its thoughtful ergonomics, placing every control within easy reach of the pilot."
'Ergonomics' is an uncountable noun ending in -s; it has no distinct plural form. When referring to the academic discipline, use singular verb agreement; when describing the physical design qualities of objects, plural agreement is acceptable.
"The ergonomics of this office chair make long working sessions far more comfortable."
The word was coined by a Polish scholar in 1857 from Greek roots meaning 'the laws of work'—but it took two world wars of misfitting machines to human bodies before anyone paid serious attention to it.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does ergonomics come from?
The term 'ergonomics' derives from the Greek words ergon, meaning 'work', and nomos, meaning 'law' or 'custom', so it literally translates as 'the laws of work'. It is generally credited to the Polish scientist Wojciech Jastrzębowski, who used it in an 1857 publication on the science of labor, though the term lay relatively dormant until the mid-twentieth century, when British researcher K. F. H. Murrell helped popularize it around 1949 amid postwar interest in fitting machines to human operators. The same Greek root ergon gives us related words such as 'energy' and 'energetic', while the -nomy element recurs in 'astronomy' and 'agronomy', all conveying a systematic body of knowledge or law governing a domain.
Related word forms
How ergonomics is actually used
Formal register, common in occupational health, product design, and engineering contexts. Though it ends in -s, it typically takes a singular verb when referring to the field ('Ergonomics is essential'), though plural agreement occurs when referring to concrete qualities ('The ergonomics of this keyboard are excellent'). The adjective form 'ergonomic' is far more common in everyday speech than the noun itself.
Easily confused with ergonomics
Though they sound similar and both end in '-onomics', economics studies the production and consumption of goods and services, while ergonomics studies how work environments and equipment fit human bodies and abilities.