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ecological niche

American

noun

Ecology.

the position or function of an organism in a community of plants and animals.

ecological niche Cultural

The place or function of a given organism within its ecosystem.

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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.

And competition with an extremely flexible generalist in almost every ecological niche may be what contributed to the extinction of all other Homo species.

From Science Daily • Apr. 17, 2024

The juvenile tyrannosaurs, it seems, had taken over that ecological niche.

From National Geographic • Dec. 8, 2023

"A free-roaming cat is not filling an ecological niche, or reverting to its ancestral form. It is merely a run-away pet that needs to be brought back inside."

From Salon • Nov. 26, 2023

Hopefully some possible futures include an ecological niche for humans.

From Scientific American • Nov. 7, 2023

Because there is at least one other ecological niche in such an environment: hunting.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023