ecology

English

Alternative forms

• oecology, œcology (archaic)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɛˈkɒlədʒi/, /ɪˈkɒlədʒi/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• (US) enPR: ĕkŏlŏjĕ, IPA^(key): /i.ˈkɑ.lə.dʒi/
• 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 1, Robert M. Pringle, “How to Be Manipulative”, in American Scientist‎^[1], volume 100, number 1, 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.

Hyponyms

• agroecology
• autecology
• chemical ecology
• chronoecology
• dendroecology
• ethnoecology
• geoecology
• hydroecology
• 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
• ecosystem
• ecotribe
• ethnoecology
• geoecology
• 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 m (ʿilm al-bīʾa)
• 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 (saang¹taai³)

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

  Min Nan: 生態學 (seng-thài-ha̍k)

• 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: vistifræði n
• 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 (ékologïya)
• Khmer: បរិស្ថានវិទ្យា (bɑɑrestʰaan vityie), និវេសនវិទ្យា (niveih vityie), អាស្រយវិទ្យា (ʼaahrɔɔyvɨtyiə)
• Korean: 생태학(生態學) (ko) (saengtaehak)

• 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 (orchinzüi)
• Norman: écologie f (Jersey)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: økologi (no) m

  Nynorsk: økologi m

• Occitan: ecologia (oc) f
• Persian: بوم‌شناسی‎ (bum-šenâsi)
• 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
• 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 f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. 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 at 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.

Further reading

• ecology on Wikipedia.Wikipedia