habitat

What it means

1. uncountablebiologyConditions suitable for an organism or population of organisms to live.

   This park offers important amphibian habitat and breeding area.

2. countablebiologyA range; a place where a species naturally occurs.
3. countablebiologyA terrestrial or aquatic area distinguished by geographic, abiotic and biotic features, whether entirely natural or semi-natural.

   rights-of-way are usually perceived as disturbance zones that provide a habitat and corridor for non-native species.

   2006, John Davenport, Julia L. Davenport, The Ecology of Transportation, page 248

In a sentence

This park offers important amphibian habitat and breeding area.

Where it comes from

1. Latinhabitat“it dwells, lives”
2. Englishhabitat

From Latin habitat (“it dwells, lives”), the 3rd person singular present active indicative form of habitō (“to live or dwell”). In Linnaeus and similar authors, the geographical ranges of species were customarily denoted in Latin by a sentence beginning with "Habitat", e.g. "Habitat in Europa" ("It lives in Europe"), and it thus became the convention to refer to the geographical range as the "habitat". Compare the English derivations of exit, floruit, ignoramus, and tenet from Latin finite verbs reanalyzed as English nouns.