Euryoecious

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Describing an organism able to survive across many different environments and habitat conditions, rather than being restricted to a narrow range
2. Able to live in a broad variety of ecological settings, showing wide tolerance of differing environmental conditions
3. Characterizing a species that thrives in many kinds of habitat, unlike those confined to only a few specific surroundings

Etymology: "Euryoecious" is a botanical and zoological term, and its parts are plain. The first comes from Ancient Greek "eurús", meaning "wide", and the second from "oikéō", "to dwell", the same root that gives English "economy" and "ecology". Put together, the word describes an organism able to live in a wide range of habitats or conditions. The pairing is a modern scientific coinage built from Greek pieces, not a term the ancient Greeks used. Its formation follows the same pattern as "eurythermal" (tolerant of a wide temperature range) and "euryhaline" (tolerant of a wide range of salinity), in which "eury-" marks breadth and a second element names the condition being tolerated. Here the condition is habitat, so "-oecious" refers to dwelling in a place rather than to reproduction, despite the similar sound of "oecious" in other botanical terms.

Synonyms: eurytopic

Antonyms: stenoecious