ecology

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the environment as it relates to living organisms

   it changed the ecology of the island

2. 2
   noun

   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.

3. 3
   noun

   Any study of the relationships of components of a system with their environment and with each other.

   social ecology

4. 4
   noun

   the branch of biology concerned with the relations between organisms and their environment

5. 5
   noun

   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.