Alternative forms

• umwelt

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from GermanCategory:English terms borrowed from German#UMWELTCategory:English unadapted borrowings from German#UMWELTCategory:English terms derived from German#UMWELT Umwelt (“environment”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʊmvɛlt/Category:English 2-syllable words#UMWELTCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#UMWELT

Noun

Umwelt (plural Umwelts or Umwelten)Category:English lemmas#UMWELTCategory:English nouns#UMWELTCategory:English countable nouns#UMWELTCategory:English nouns with irregular plurals#UMWELTCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#UMWELTCategory:Pages with entries#UMWELTCategory:Pages with 2 entries#UMWELT

1. One's surroundings or environment; the outer world as perceived by organisms within it.
   • 1979, Kyril Bonfiglioli, “After You with the Pistol”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     It seems that these S-E-A-Values are all about what ethnologists call the Umwelt — the area of alarm around members of the brute creation, such as human beings.

     Category:English terms with quotations#UMWELT

   • 1990 October 7, S. J. Bodio, A. Shilstone, “Pigeon Racing: Homing in on an 'invisible' sport”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 21, number 7, pages 80, 10p:

     Still, a pigeon's worldview -- its Umwelt, ...

     Category:English terms with quotations#UMWELT

   • 2006, Chris Arthur, “Empty Room”, in Southwest Review, volume 91, number 3, pages p295-312, 18p:

     ... a fragment snipped from the perplexing umwelt of Homo sapiens, our innumerable temporary enclosures.

     Category:English terms with quotations#UMWELT

Etymology

From um- +‎ WeltCategory:German terms prefixed with um-#WELT. In the biological sense first used by Jakob Johann von Uexküll (1909).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʊmvɛlt/Category:German 2-syllable words#UMWELTCategory:German terms with IPA pronunciation#UMWELT

• Audio (Austria):

  (file)

  Category:German terms with audio pronunciation#UMWELT

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

  Category:German terms with audio pronunciation#UMWELT

Noun

Umwelt f (genitive Umwelt, plural Umwelten)Category:German lemmas#UMWELTCategory:German nouns#UMWELTCategory:German entries with incorrect language header#UMWELTCategory:German feminine nouns#UMWELTCategory:Pages with entries#UMWELTCategory:Pages with 2 entries#UMWELT

1. environment; milieu; surroundings
   • 1816, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “Auf dem Brenner, den 8. September, abends”, in Italienische Reise [Italian Journey]‎, volume 1:

     Der Tag ist so lang, das Nachdenken ungestört, und die herrlichen Bilder der Umwelt verdrängen keineswegs den poetischen Sinn, sie rufen ihn vielmehr, von Bewegung und freier Luft begleitet, nur desto schneller hervor.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

     Category:German terms with quotations#UMWELTCategory:Requests for translations of German quotations#UMWELT

2. (biologyCategory:de:Biology#UMWELT, ecologyCategory:de:Ecology#UMWELT) environment; ecosystem
   • 1909, Jakob von Uexküll, Umwelt und Innenwelt der Tiere, Berlin: J. Springer, page 248:

     Jedes Tier besitzt seine eigene Umwelt, die immer größere Verschiedenheiten mit der unseren aufweist, je weiter es sich in seiner Organisation von uns entfernt.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

     Category:German terms with quotations#UMWELTCategory:Requests for translations of German quotations#UMWELT

Further reading

• “Umwelt”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache‎ (in German)
• “Umwelt” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “Umwelt” in Duden online
• Umwelt on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de