Short answer The suffix you are looking for is ”-logy” (sort of). Long answer Leaving all of the messy realities of natural language aside, the suffix ”-ic” means “related to, pertaining to, or in the manner of” and ”-ics” is used for words that refer to activities, practices, or fields of knowledge related to or pertaining to their root. So “economic” means “relating to the economy,” and “economics” is the field of knowledge pertaining to economies. It is therefore not always easy to distinguish ”-ics” from ”-logy,” which means “study of” (and thus is also used to refer to fields of knowledge). But ”-logy” is arguably broader in scope simply due to the fact that its Greek root (logos) is itself very broad. It is so broad, in fact, that while ”-logy” is often translated as “study of” or even “science of,” it is also the suffix used in words like “trilogy” (since one of the many meanings of logos is “narrative”). So what does this all mean for you? Well, it turns out that ”-logy” is also used as a suffix in words that mean “the art of ______,” such as “cosmetology” (the art of applying cosmetics) or “campanology” (the art of bell ringing). There is some ambiguity here: cosmetology is a field of study as much as it is an art, and campanology involves much more having to do with bells than just the ringing of them. But it remains the case that ”-logy” is used for “the art of” in addition to being used for “the study of.”