food chain

See also: foodchain

English

Noun

food chain (plural food chains)

1. The feeding relationships between species in a biotic community.
2. (idiomatic) A hierarchy.

   With my promotion this month I will continue my steady journey to the top of the food chain.

Usage notes

Because the concept of the food chain implies a feeding hierarchy proceeding upwards to a top predator, modern ecologists usually prefer the term food web, since that term allows for a more complicated system of interactions.

Related terms

• food web
• trophic level

Translations

a feeding relationship between species

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 食物鏈 (zh), 食物链 (zh) (shíwùliàn), 營養鏈, 营养链 (yíngyǎngliàn)

• Czech: potravní řetězec m
• Danish: fødekæde (da) c
• Dutch: voedselketen (nl) f
• Esperanto: nutroĉeno
• Finnish: ravintoketju (fi)
• French: chaîne alimentaire (fr) f
• German: Nahrungskette (de) f
• Greek: τροφική αλυσίδα f (trofikí alysída)

• Hungarian: tápláléklánc (hu)
• Italian: catena alimentare f
• Japanese: 食物連鎖 (ja) (しょくもつれんさ, shokumotsu rensa)
• Polish: łańcuch pokarmowy (pl) m
• Portuguese: cadeia alimentar (pt) f
• Russian: пищева́я цепь f (piščevája cepʹ), трофи́ческая цепь f (trofíčeskaja cepʹ)
• Spanish: cadena trófica f
• Swedish: näringskedja (sv)
• Turkish: besin zinciri (tr)

idiomatic: a hierarchy

• Dutch: pikorde (nl) f
• Finnish: ravintoketju (fi)

• Hungarian: tápláléklánc (hu)
• Japanese: 食物連鎖 (ja) (shokumotsu-rensa)