Definition of "environment" []

• The circumstances or conditions that surround one; surroundings. (noun)
• The totality of circumstances surrounding an organism or group of organisms, especially: (noun)
• The combination of external physical conditions that affect and influence the growth, development, and survival of organisms: "We shall never understand the natural environment until we see it as a living organism” ( Paul Brooks). (noun)
• The complex of social and cultural conditions affecting the nature of an individual or community. (noun)
• Computer Science The entire set of conditions under which one operates a computer, as it relates to the hardware, operating platform, or operating system. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "I have to admit that some of the insights had a “Well, Duh!” quality when I first read them ie that a phenotype which enjoys a reproductive advantage in one environment may be selected against in another environment*."
• "That is, a non-mammalian is a fertilized egg _plus_ its parental (or extra-parental) environment; but a mammalian individual is a fertilized egg, _plus its intra-maternal environment_, plus its non-parental environment."
• "A Goldman spokesman said: "The firm produced very good results for 2009, but the environment is very difficult and the board was mindful of that difficult ­environment in making decisions about executive compensation.""