niche

noun \ ˈnich also ˈnēsh or ˈnish \

Definition of niche

1 a :a recess in a wall especially for a statue

b :something (such as a sheltered or private space) that resembles a recess in a wall

2 a :a place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted

finally found her niche

b :a habitat supplying the factors necessary for the existence of an organism or species

c :the ecological role of an organism in a community especially in regard to food consumption

d :a specialized market

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Examples of niche in a Sentence

To succeed in this new world, you have to sell yourself. You go to a brand-name college, not to imbibe the wisdom of its professors, but to make impressions and connections. You pick a niche that can bring attention to yourself and then develop your personal public relations efforts to let the world know who you are. —Alan Wolfe, New York Times Book Review, 7 Jan. 2001
The ivory-billed woodpecker, wan ghost of southern woodlands, may actually be flying forth from its niche in extinction. —Frank Graham, Jr., Audubon, May/June 2000
Creatures in the genus Rickettsia occupy a niche between bacteria and viruses. They carry much of their own cellular equipment and are vulnerable to antibiotics, but like viruses they need to invade living cells in order to grow. —Wayne Biddle, A Field Guide to Germs, 1995
No, a safe and humble backbencher's niche in the Senate was the inheritance of a Julius these days. —Colleen McCullough, The First Man in Rome, 1990
A dozen or so fey young monks in saffron robes and shaven heads wafted from quiet niche to niche begging alms and looking very flesh-bound to my jaded eyes. —Arthur Miller, Timebends, 1987
I found a niche for myself after high school.
She finally found her niche as a teacher.
the species that fill an environmental niche

Recent Examples of niche from the Web

Lazaro Romero and Yoan Vazquez forged their friendship through Miami’s niche world of pigeon racing.

— david ovalle, miamiherald, "Racing pigeons and murder: A Miami trial casts spotlight on niche sport," 29 Aug. 2017
A wall of niches holds anonymous non-Western objects, and also unsigned busts of Gandhi and of Joseph Hirshhorn, and small paintings by Philip Taaffe and Linda Stark.

— nancy princenthal, New York Times, "Contemporary Art Steams Up the Hudson," 24 Aug. 2017
American audiences routinely measured in the scores of millions, compared with today’s niche programming.

— jeff macgregor, Smithsonian, "Why ‘Happy Days’ — and the Fonz — Never Truly ‘Jumped the Shark’," 23 Aug. 2017
More companies like Calbee, whose Chairman Akira Matsumoto is a vocal advocate of diversity, are starting to see working moms as a lucrative niche in a domestic market that’s shrinking overall.

— lisa du, Bloomberg.com, "Granola Boom Proves Japan's Working Women Are Good for Business," 20 Aug. 2017
That's all to say: These days, there's a cruise for just about every hobby or interest, no matter how niche.

— andrew sessa, CNT, "Cunard Is Launching a New York Times Crossword-Themed Cruise," 14 Aug. 2017
The niche highlighter comes from The Perfect V and is named Shades of V Very V Luminizer, Refinery29 reports.

— Teen Vogue, "The Perfect V Creates Vulva Highlighter," 20 July 2017
Josh Barro is a recovering ex-Republican who is now a member of a niche political group: the non-crazy Democrats.

— kyle smith, National Review, "The Left’s ‘Hamburger Problem’ Is Not Going Away," 19 July 2017
The games grew in large part from a 2006 federal law that banned online gambling but created a specific niche for fantasy sports.

— philip marcelo, The Seattle Times, "DraftKings, FanDuel call off daily fantasy sports merger," 13 July 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'niche.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

How do you pronounce niche? Is it \NEESH\ or \NICH\?

There is a debate about how you are supposed to pronounce niche. There are two common pronunciation variants, both of which are currently considered correct: \NEESH\ (rhymes with sheesh) and \NICH\ (rhymes with pitch). \NICH\ is the more common one and the older of the two pronunciations. It is the only pronunciation given for the word in all English dictionaries until the 20th century, when \NEESH\ was first listed as a pronunciation variant in Daniel Jones's English Pronouncing Dictionary (1917). \NEESH\ wasn’t listed as a pronunciation in our dictionaries until our 1961 Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged, and it wasn’t entered into our smaller Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary until 1993. Even then, it was marked in the Collegiate as a pronunciation that was in educated use but not considered acceptable until 2003.

All this is to say that the historical pronunciation has been \NICH\, and that \NEESH\ is a relative newcomer that came about likely under influence from French pronunciation conventions. At this point in time in the U.S., \NICH\ is still the more common pronunciation, but \NEESH\ is gaining ground. Our evidence suggests that in British English, \NEESH\ is now the more common pronunciation.

Illustration of niche

Origin and Etymology of niche

French, from Middle French, from nicher to nest, from Vulgar Latin *nidicare, from Latin nidus nest — more at nest

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1610

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niche Synonyms

Synonyms

alcove, nook, recess

Related Words

corner, cranny, cubbyhole; cubicle; dent, embrasure, indent, indentation, indenture; ambry, housing, shrine

Other Ecology Terms

Malthusian, anthropogenic, biomass, carbon footprint, crepuscular, sere, symbiosis, taiga, tundra

niche

verb \ ˈnich also ˈnēsh or ˈnish \

Definition of niche

niched; niching

transitive verb

:to place in or as if in a niche (see ¹niche)

Examples of niche in a Sentence

The most moving of all the museums in Russia, right now, is also the smallest and the most unlikely. Niched with no fuss whatever in what was a communal apartment high in the annex of the former Sheremetyev Palace in St. Petersburg, it is devoted to a great Russian poet, Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966). —John Russell, New York Times Book Review, 1 Jan. 1995

Origin and Etymology of niche

see ¹niche

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1753

See Words from the same year

NICHE Defined for English Language Learners

niche

noun

Definition of niche for English Language Learners

: a job, activity, etc., that is very suitable for someone
: the situation in which a business's products or services can succeed by being sold to a particular kind or group of people
: an environment that has all the things that a particular plant or animal needs in order to live