ecological
Britishadjective
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of or relating to ecology
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(of a practice, policy, product, etc) tending to benefit or cause minimal damage to the environment
Other Word Forms
Explanation
Anything ecological relates to the science of ecology, which is the study of how living things and the environment do their thing. If you're interested in issues like preserving rain forests, saving endangered species, and keeping drinking water safe, you're interested in ecological issues. Ecological things have to do with how plants and animals relate to each other, in good and bad ways, in specific environments — from the impact of floods on river insects to how smog harms humans. Just about anything people do has an ecological impact — for better or worse.
Vocabulary lists containing ecological
The Omnivore's Dilemma
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The Modern Period, c. 1750 to c. 1914
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5.3: The First Industrial Revolution (Sources 1–7)
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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.
The work also may help explain why irregularity is so common in natural systems, including neural, biological and ecological networks.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2026
Today, they account for 20% of all mammal species, occupy habitats on every continent except Antarctica, and have adapted to a wide range of ecological niches.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 12, 2026
The National Trust said Nant Ffrancon, a valley in Eryri National Park, was facing "serious ecological decline" with some species in danger of disappearing altogether, including the mountain blackbird and the mountain finch.
From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2026
That’s why state officials say they worked for years to come up with a plan to help halt the ecological decline of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
Researchers had previously noted the temporal coincidence between the paleo-Indians’ arrival and the mass extinction, but they didn’t believe that small bands of hunters could wreak such ecological havoc.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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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.