A community of living things and the nonliving environment they interact with, seen as one whole system.
Formed in the 20th century from 'eco-' (from Greek 'oikos', meaning 'house, environment') and 'system' (a set of connected parts). It highlights living things and their surroundings as a single, interacting unit.
An ecosystem can be as large as a rainforest or as small as a puddle; the key is the web of interactions. We now use 'ecosystem' for technology and business too, showing how deeply the nature metaphor has spread.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.