ecological niche
Americannoun
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Different organisms may compete for the same niche. For example, in a forest there may be a niche for an organism that can fly and eat nectar from blossoms. This niche may be filled by some sort of bird, or an insect, or even a mammal such as a bat.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This ability allows Balanophora to spread quickly into the narrow ecological niche it prefers: dark, moist forest undergrowth where few other plants can survive.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 20, 2025
The terror birds, which out-competed the mammals in occupying this particular ecological niche, may even have driven mammalian predators to take to the forests instead.
From Salon ● Feb. 25, 2025
Hopefully some possible futures include an ecological niche for humans.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 7, 2023
In some areas, species have had tens of millions of years to migrate and specialize, “filling each ecological niche completely.”
From National Geographic ● Oct. 13, 2023
He says that when a species becomes extinct, some other species moves in to fill up the ecological niche, because Nature abhors a vacuum.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
