''ecology'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''ecology'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260615002359-00-⌔

ecology - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

ecology (countable and uncountable, plural ecologies)

• (biology) The branch of biology dealing with the relationships of organisms with their environment and with each other.
  • ✤ As a graduate student, he was working on a thesis: The Ecology of the Black Creek Area. He had to investigate the relationships, past and present, of men and plants and animals in this region.¹
  • ✤ As in much of biology, the most satisfying truths in ecology derive from manipulative experimentation. Tinker with nature and quantify how it responds.²
• (by extension) Any study of the relationships of components of a system with their environment and with each other.
  • ✤ *social ecology *
  • ✤ *linguistic ecology *
• The totality or pattern of relationships of components of a system with their environment and with each other.

Etymology

Calque of German Ökologie (coined in 1866 by Ernst Haeckel), from Ancient Greek οἶκος (oîkos, “house”) + -λογία (-logía, “study of”). By surface analysis, eco- +‎ -logy.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ɪˈkɒl.ə.d͡ʒi/
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
• (US, dialects of Canada) IPA: /ɪˈkɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/, /iˈkɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/
• (Canada, dialects of the US) IPA: /ɪˈkɒl.ə.d͡ʒi/
• (Australian) IPA: /ɪˈkɔl.ə.d͡ʒi/
• (New Zealand) IPA: /əˈkɒl.ə.d͡ʒi/, [əˈkɔ̟l.ə.d͡ʒi]
• Hyphenation: ecol‧ogy
• Rhymes: -ɒlədʒi

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

1. 1949, George R. Stewart, Earth Abides: ↩

2. 2012 January, Robert M. Pringle, “How to Be Manipulative”, in American Scientist ‎${}^{[1]}$, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 3 October 2013, page 31: ↩

Link to original

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