food chain

See also: foodchain

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

food chain (plural food chains)

1. The feeding relationships between species in a biotic community.
2. (idiomatic) A hierarchy.

   With my promotion this month I will continue my steady journey to the top of the food chain.

Usage notes

Because the concept of the food chain implies a feeding hierarchy proceeding upwards to a top predator, modern ecologists usually prefer the term food web, since that term allows for a more complicated system of interactions.

Related terms

• food web
• trophic level

Translations

feeding relationship between species

• Afrikaans: voedselketting
• Azerbaijani: qida zənciri
• Basque: kate trofiko
• Belarusian: ланцуг харчавання m (lancuh xarčavannja), харчовы ланцуг m (xarčóvy lancuh)
• Bulgarian: хранителна верига f (hranitelna veriga)
• Catalan: cadena tròfica f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 食物鏈 / 食物链 (zh) (shíwùliàn), 營養鏈 / 营养链 (zh) (yíngyǎngliàn)

• Czech: potravní řetězec m
• Danish: fødekæde (da) c
• Dutch: voedselketen (nl) f
• Esperanto: nutroĉeno
• Estonian: toitumisahel
• Finnish: ravintoketju (fi)
• French: chaîne alimentaire (fr) f
• Galician: cadea alimenticia f, cadea trófica f
• German: Nahrungskette (de) f
• Greek: τροφική αλυσίδα f (trofikí alysída)
• Hebrew: שרשרת מזון (he) f (sharsheret mazon)
• Hungarian: tápláléklánc (hu)
• Icelandic: fæðukeðja (is) f
• Ido: nutriva kateno
• Indonesian: rantai makanan (id)
• Irish: slabhra bia m, biashlabhra m
• Italian: catena alimentare f
• Japanese: 食物連鎖 (ja) (しょくもつれんさ, shokumotsu rensa)
• Korean: 먹이 사슬 (meogi saseul)
• Latvian: barības ķēde f
• Lithuanian: mitybos grandinė f
• Macedonian: синџир на исхрана m (sindžir na ishrana), ланец на исхрана m (lanec na ishrana)
• Marathi: अन्नसाखळी f (annasākhḷī)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: næringskjede c

  Nynorsk: næringskjede f

• Polish: łańcuch pokarmowy (pl) m
• Portuguese: cadeia alimentar (pt) f, cadeia trófica f
• Punjabi: ਖੁਰਾਕ ਲੜੀ f (khurāk laṛī)
• Romanian: lanț trofic n
• Romansch: chadaina da nutriment f
• Russian: пищева́я цепь f (piščevája cepʹ), трофи́ческая цепь f (trofíčeskaja cepʹ)
• Scottish Gaelic: sreath-bìdh
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ланац исхране m

  Roman: lanac ishrane m

• Slovak: potravinový reťazec m
• Slovene: prehranjevalna veriga f
• Spanish: cadena alimentaria (es) f, cadena trófica f, cadena manducatoria f
• Swahili: mzunguko wa chakula
• Swedish: näringskedja (sv)
• Thai: ห่วงโซ่อาหาร (th) (hùuang-sôo-aa-hǎan)
• Turkish: besin zinciri (tr)
• Ukrainian: харчовий ланцюжок m (xarčovyj lancjužok), харчовий ланцюг m (xarčovyj lancjuh)
• Vietnamese: chuỗi thức ăn (vi)
• Welsh: cadwyn fwyd f

idiomatic: a hierarchy

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 食物鏈 / 食物链 (zh) (shíwùliàn), 等級制度 / 等级制度 (zh) (děngjí zhìdù), 階層 / 阶层 (zh) (jiēcéng), 层次 (zh) (céngcì)

• Danish: fødekæde (da) c, hakkeorden c (lit. "pecking order", referring to chickens)
• Dutch: pikorde (nl) f
• Finnish: ravintoketju (fi)
• Hungarian: tápláléklánc (hu)
• Japanese: 食物連鎖 (ja) (shokumotsu-rensa)
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Portuguese: cadeia alimentar (pt) f
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can