food chain

noun

1

: an arrangement of the organisms of an ecological community according to the order of predation in which each uses the next usually lower member as a food source

2

: a hierarchy based on power or importance

at the top of the corporate food chain

Examples of food chain in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This prize-winning documentary by directors Jack Weisman and Gabriela Osio Vanden details the connection between climate change and the food chain. — Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times, 6 Nov. 2026

Farmers should not have to keep paying for nutrients that remain inaccessible to their crops, nor should agricultural productivity come at the cost of introducing avoidable contaminants into the soil and food chain. — Rafael De Toledo, MSNBC Newsweek, 6 Nov. 2026

Wendy’s has wrestled with inflation like other fast food chains and lower-income customers have cut down on visits as the company raised prices to combat rising labor, food and packaging costs. — Dee-Ann Durbin, Chicago Tribune, 5 Nov. 2026

Those traits have their place and humanity wouldn’t be at the top of a terrifyingly competitive food chain without them. — Literary Hub, 26 Oct. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1920, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for food chain

• abstain
• airplane
• alkane
• arcane
• arraign
• attain
• backplane
• betaine
• biplane
• blockchain
• butane
• campaign

Kids Definition

food chain

noun

: a series of organisms in which each uses the next usually lower member of the series as a food source