Dictionary
1niche
noun \ˈnich also ˈnēsh or ˈnish\
: a job, activity, etc., that is very suitable for someone
: the situation in which a business's products or services can succeed by being sold to a particular kind or group of people
: an environment that has all the things that a particular plant or animal needs in order to live
Full Definition of NICHE
1
a : a recess in a wall especially for a statue b : something (as a sheltered or private space) that resembles a recess in a wall
2
a : a place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted <finally found her niche> b : a habitat supplying the factors necessary for the existence of an organism or species c : the ecological role of an organism in a community especially in regard to food consumption d : a specialized market
See niche defined for English-language learners
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Examples of NICHE
- To succeed in this new world, you have to sell yourself. You go to a brand-name college, not to imbibe the wisdom of its professors, but to make impressions and connections. You pick a niche that can bring attention to yourself and then develop your personal public relations efforts to let the world know who you are. —Alan Wolfe, New York Times Book Review, 7 Jan. 2001
- The ivory-billed woodpecker, wan ghost of southern woodlands, may actually be flying forth from its niche in extinction. —Frank Graham, Jr., Audubon, May/June 2000
- Creatures in the genus Rickettsia occupy a niche between bacteria and viruses. They carry much of their own cellular equipment and are vulnerable to antibiotics, but like viruses they need to invade living cells in order to grow. —Wayne Biddle, A Field Guide to Germs, 1995
- No, a safe and humble backbencher's niche in the Senate was the inheritance of a Julius these days. —Colleen McCullough, The First Man in Rome, 1990
- A dozen or so fey young monks in saffron robes and shaven heads wafted from quiet niche to niche begging alms and looking very flesh-bound to my jaded eyes. —Arthur Miller, Timebends, 1987
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Illustration of NICHE
Origin of NICHE
French, from Middle French, from nicher to nest, from Vulgar Latin *nidicare, from Latin nidus nest — more at nest
First Known Use: 1611
Other Ecology Terms
2niche
verb \ˈnich also ˈnēsh or ˈnish\
nichednich·ing
Definition of NICHE
transitive verb
: to place in or as if in a niche (see 1niche)
Examples of NICHE
- The most moving of all the museums in Russia, right now, is also the smallest and the most unlikely. Niched with no fuss whatever in what was a communal apartment high in the annex of the former Sheremetyev Palace in St. Petersburg, it is devoted to a great Russian poet, Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966). —John Russell, New York Times Book Review, 1 Jan. 1995
Origin of NICHE
(see 1niche)
First Known Use: 1752
NICHE[1] Defined for Kids
niche
noun \ˈnich\
Definition of NICHE for Kids
1
: an open hollow space in a wall (as for a statue)
2
: a place, job, or use for which a person or a thing is best fitted <She found her niche in teaching.>
Medical Dictionary
niche
noun \ˈnich sometimes ˈnish or ˈnēsh\
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