noun
Freq #19138
Meanings
-
1
noun
All the living things in an area and the way they affect each other and their environment.
Pollution is threatening the delicate ecosystem of the coral reef.
-
2
noun
A network of connected people, companies, or products that depend on each other.
The app is part of a larger ecosystem of services made by the company.
Thesaurus
Word family
Forms
ecosystems
Derived forms
agroecosystemecosystemicgeoecosystemmacroecosystemmesoecosystemmetaecosystemmicroecosystempalaeoecosystempaleoecosystemtechnoecosystem
Etymology
From eco- + system. Coined by English botanist Arthur Tansley in 1935 in a paper titled The Use and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts in the journal Ecology.