umwelt

plural umwelts · plural umwelten

1. Alternative letter-case form of Umwelt.

   We keep going, locked into our little umwelts, only occasionally remembering to look up.

   2008 June 19, Claudia La Rocco, “An Ordinary-Looking Bunch, Reflecting the Random Activities of Others”, in New York Times

   2 more examples

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

   2006, Chris Arthur, “Empty Room”, in Southwest Review, volume 91, number 3, pages 295–312, 18p

   Author and journalist Ed Yong uses the German term umwelt to describe an organism’s unique sensory perspectives. […] He uses the metaphor of a large house with many windows looking onto a garden. Each animal has its own window. But there are other windows as well, each with a different view of the same place. We humans have our own window, our own particular umwelt.

   2024 November 22, Stephanie Hanes, Melanie Stetson Freeman, “Moody chickens? Playful bumblebees? Science decodes the rich inner lives of animals.”, in The Christian Science Monitor

plural Umwelts · plural Umwelten · alternative umwelt

1. One's surroundings or environment; the outer world as perceived by organisms within it.

   Still, a pigeon's worldview -- its 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

   2 more examples

   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.

   1979, Kyril Bonfiglioli, “After You with the Pistol”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)

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

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