ecology

• oecology, œcology (archaic)

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

• (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

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, 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.

• ecology block

• Appendix:Glossary of ecology

• “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.

• ecology on Wikipedia.Wikipedia