ecology

English

Alternative forms

• oecology, œcology (archaic)

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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪˈkɒl.ə.d͡ʒi/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ɪˈkɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/, /iˈkɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ɪˈkɔl.ə.d͡ʒi/
• Hyphenation: ecol‧ogy
• Rhymes: -ɒlədʒi

Noun

ecology (countable and uncountable, plural ecologies)

1. (biology) The branch of biology dealing with the relationships of organisms with their environment and with each other.
   • 1949, George R. Stewart, Earth Abides:

     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.

   • 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:

     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

3. The totality or pattern of relationships of components of a system with their environment and with each other.

Hyponyms

• agroecology
• autecology
• chemical ecology
• chronoecology
• cultural ecology
• dendroecology
• ethnoecology
• geoecology
• hydroecology
• kincentric ecology
• language ecology
• linguistic ecology
• macroecology
• myrmecology
• palaeoecology
• paleoecology
• photoecology
• phytoecology
• radioecology
• restoration ecology
• social ecology
• socioecology
• synecology
• thermoecology

 

Derived terms

• agroecology
• arcology
• astroecology
• autecology
• bioecology
• chemical ecology
• chronoecology
• cultural ecology
• deep ecology
• dendroecology
• eco-
• ecological
• ecologist
• ecology block
• ecosophy
• ecosystem
• ecotribe
• ethnoecology
• geoecology
• human ecology
• hydroecology
• macroecology
• microecology
• myrmecology
• paleoecology
• photoecology
• radioecology
• restoration ecology
• socioecology
• synecology
• zooecology

 

Related terms

• ecology block

Translations

branch of biology

• Afrikaans: ekologie (af)
• Albanian: ekologji (sq) f
• Arabic: عِلْم اَلْبِيئَة (ar) m (ʕilm al-bīʔa)
• Aragonese: ecolochía f
• Armenian: էկոլոգիա (hy) (ēkologia)
• Asturian: ecoloxía f
• Belarusian: экало́гія f (ekalóhija)
• Breton: ekoloji f
• Bulgarian: екология (bg) f (ekologija)
• Burmese: ဂေဟဗေဒ (geha.beda.)
• Catalan: ecologia f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 生態／生态, 生態學／生态学 (sang¹ taai³ hok⁶)

  Hokkien: 生態學／生态学 (seng-thài-ha̍k)

  Mandarin: 生態／生态 (zh) (shēngtài), 生態學／生态学 (zh) (shēngtàixué)

• Czech: ekologie (cs) f
• Danish: økologi (da) c
• Dutch: ecologie (nl) f
• Esperanto: ekologio
• Estonian: ökoloogia (et)
• Faroese: vistfrøði (fo) f
• Finnish: ekologia (fi), ympäristötiede (fi)
• French: écologie (fr) f
• Galician: ecoloxía (gl) f
• Georgian: ეკოლოგია (eḳologia)
• German: Ökologie (de) f

  Alemannic German: Ökologie f

• Greek: οικολογία (el) f (oikología)
• Hebrew: אקולוגיה (he) f (ekologyia)
• Hindi: पारिस्थितिकी (pāristhitikī)
• Hungarian: ökológia (hu), környezettan (hu)
• Icelandic: vistfræði f
• Ido: ekologio (io)
• Indonesian: ekologi (id)
• Interlingua: ecologia
• Irish: éiceolaíocht f
• Italian: ecologia (it) f
• Japanese: 生態学 (ja) (せいたいがく, seitaigaku)
• Kannada: ಹೊಂದಿಕೆಯರಿಮೆ (kn) (hondikeyarime)
• Kazakh: экология (ékologiä)
• Khmer: បរិស្ថានវិទ្យា (bɑɑrestʰaan vityie), និវេសនវិទ្យា (niveih vityie), អាស្រយវិទ្យា (ʼaahrɔɔyvɨtyiə)
• Korean: 생태학(生態學) (ko) (saengtaehak)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: ekolojî (ku) f

• Latin: oecologia f
• Latvian: ekoloģija (lv) f
• Lithuanian: ekologija f
• Luxembourgish: Ökologie f, Ekologie f
• Macedonian: еколо́гија f (ekológija)
• Malay:

  Jawi: کاجي عالم حيات, ايکولوݢي (ms)

  Rumi: kaji alam hayat, ekologi (ms)

• Maltese: ekoloġija f
• Maori: mātai hauropi
• Mongolian: орчинзүй (orčinzüj)
• Norman: écologie f (Jersey)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: økologi (no) m

  Nynorsk: økologi m

• Occitan: ecologia (oc) f
• Persian: بوم‌شناسی (bum-šenâsi), اکولوژی (fa) (ekoloži)
• Polish: ekologia (pl) f
• Portuguese: ecologia (pt) f
• Romanian: ecologie (ro) f
• Russian: эколо́гия (ru) f (ekológija)
• Scottish Gaelic: eag-eòlas m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: екологија f

  Roman: ekologija (sh) f

• Sindhi: سَهِجِياڀياس
• Slovak: ekológia f
• Slovene: ekologija (sl) f
• Spanish: ecología (es) f
• Sundanese: ékologi
• Swahili: ikolojia (sw)
• Swedish: ekologi (sv) c, miljöforskning
• Tagalog: palamuhayan, ekolohiya
• Tajik: экология (ekologiya)
• Tamil: சூழ்நிலையியல் (ta) (cūḻnilaiyiyal)
• Thai: นิเวศวิทยา (níwêt wíttáyaa)
• Turkish: çevre bilimi (tr), ekoloji (tr)
• Ukrainian: еколо́гія (uk) f (ekolóhija)
• Vietnamese: sinh thái học (vi) (生態學)
• Volapük: köolog
• Welsh: ecoleg (cy) f
• Yiddish: עקאָלאָגיע f (ekologye)
• Zazaki: ekoloci

totality or pattern of relationships

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 生態／生态

  Mandarin: 生態／生态 (zh) (shēngtài)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Corsican: ^{(please verify)} ekologia
• Sardinian: ^{(please verify)} ecologia f
• Sicilian: ^{(please verify)} ecologia f

See also

• Appendix:Glossary of ecology

References

• “ecology”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• ecology in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• "ecology" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 110.
• “ecology”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Further reading

• ecology on Wikipedia.Wikipedia