Ecosystem
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A system formed by an ecological community and its environment that functions as a unit.
"Phoenix and Lubbock are both caught in severe drought, and it is going to get much worse. We may see many such [dust] storms in the decades ahead, along with species extinctions, radical disturbance of ecosystems, and intensified social conflict over land and water. Welcome to the Anthropocene, the epoch when humans have become a major geological and climatic force."
- 2 a system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their physical environment wordnet
- 3 The interconnectedness of organisms (plants, animals, microbes) with each other and their environment.
- 4 A network of interconnected people, organizations, products or services that resembles a natural ecosystem due to the complex interdependencies. broadly
"The company’s ecosystem mainly comprises its supply chain, customers, end consumers and competitors."
Example
More examples"The earth's ecosystem is to some extent self-correcting, so it is also possible that the effects are being masked by other changes."
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.
Related phrases
More for "ecosystem"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.