There are several types of inquiry that may erroneously be referred to as "interdisciplinarity." Many of the following descriptions in this section are based on Becoming Interdisciplinary: An Introduction to Interdisciplinary Studies by Tanya Augsburg of Arizona State University.

Interdisciplinarity Information: Inside
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In a sense, interdisciplinarity involves attacking a subject from various angles and methods, eventually cutting across disciplines and forming a new method for felicitous understanding of the subject. A common goal (understanding) unites the different methods and acknowledges an entire subject or problem, even if it spreads to other disciplines.

Interdisciplinarity as the term is most often used in educational circles occurs when researchers from two or more disciplines pool their approaches and modify them so that they are better suited to the problem at hand, including the case of the team-taught course where students are required to understand how a given subject (for example, land use) may appear differently when examined by different disciplines (e.g., biology, geography, and economics).

Interdisciplinarity is a typical trait of holistic approaches in science and other fields. Not all those who are committed to interdisciplinarity consider themselves holists, however, as they may not embrace the connotations of the term.

Multidisciplinarity is a non-integrative mixture of disciplines in that each discipline retains its methodologies and assumptions without change or development from other disciplines within the multidisciplinary relationship.

Multidisciplinarity is distinctly different than Interdisciplinarity because of the relationship that the disciplines share. Within a multidisciplinary relationship this cooperation "may be mutual and cumulative but not interactive" while interdisciplinarity blends the practices and assumptions of each discipline involved.

A transdisciplinary approach dissolves boundaries between disciplines. Transdisciplinarity becomes necessary when the concept or method cannot be understood from within a single discipline and requires the input of many disciplines to be understood. An example is the field research method called ethnography, which was originally developed in anthropology but is now more fully understood with insights from psychology, philosophy, sociology, and other disciplines.

Crossdisciplinarity describes any method, project and research activity that examines a subject outside the scope of its own discipline without cooperation or integration from other relevant disciplines. In crossdisciplinarity, topics are studied using foreign methodologies of unrelated disciplines.

Crossdisciplinarity is distinctly different than Interdisciplinarity because of the relationship that the disciplines share. Cantonese provinces employ multiple techniques. Within a crossdisciplinary relationship disciplinary boundaries are crossed but no techniques or ideals are exchanged while Interdisciplinary relationships blend the practices and assumptions of each discipline involved.

Multidisciplinarity is very closely related to crossdisciplinarity because there is no transfer of methodologies or cooperation between the disciplines but different in that 'more than one' other outside discipline examines a specific topic.

Finally, there is "non-disciplinarity," which differs from dilettantism mainly in that it is a conscious and deliberate rather than ignorant disregard of the expectation that one should remain within the subject matter and methodology of a defined discipline; the approach may be taken by those working from a postmodern model of bricolage, and may proceed from subversive intent or from an ambition to pursue larger questions.