There are two meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun Zionism. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.
How common is the noun Zionism?
About 2occurrences per million words in modern written English
1890
0.079
1900
0.26
1910
0.49
1920
0.81
1930
1.3
1940
1.8
1950
2.1
1960
2.5
1970
2.8
1980
2.9
1990
2.5
2000
2.2
2010
2.1
How is the noun Zionism pronounced?
British English
/ˈzʌɪənɪz(ə)m/
ZIGH-uh-niz-uhm
U.S. English
/ˈzaɪəˌnɪzəm/
ZIGH-uh-niz-uhm
Where does the noun Zionism come from?
Earliest known use
1890s
The earliest known use of the noun Zionism is in the 1890s.
OED's earliest evidence for Zionism is from 1896, in Jewish Chronicle.
Zionism is of multiple origins. Partly formed within English, by derivation; modelled on a German lexical item. Partly from a proper name, combined with an English element.
Of multiple origins. Partly formed within English, by derivation; modelled on a German lexical item. Partly from a proper name, combined with an English element.
In sense 1<Zionn. + ‑ismsuffix, after GermanZionismus (N. Birnbaum 1890, in Selbst-Emancipation 16 May 1/1); see etymological note.In sense 2< the name of Zion, Illinois + ‑ismsuffix; the Christian Catholic…
In sense 1<Zionn. + ‑ismsuffix, after GermanZionismus (N. Birnbaum 1890, in Selbst-Emancipation 16 May 1/1); see etymological note.In sense 2< the name of Zion, Illinois + ‑ismsuffix; the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church in Zion, Illinois, significantly influenced the development of this religious movement in South Africa in the early 1900s.Compare earlier Zionistn.
Notes
Nathan Birnbaum (1864–1937) was an Austrian-born Jewish writer and journalist. In 1883 he founded Kadimah, the first Jewish student association at the University of Vienna, and one year later the periodical Selbst-Emancipation, most of the articles in which he wrote himself.
Compare the following earlier example in which the context is the use of Zion as a metaphor for High Church Anglicanism:
1890
Herod's slaughter of the babes at Bethlehem was not more indiscriminating, or more cruel, than that which Zionism in Oxford has directed against the truths of God.
B. W. Newton, Babylon (ed. 3) 492
Meaning & use
1.
1896–
Originally: a movement among Jewish people for the re-establishment of a Jewish nation in Palestine. Later: a movement for the development and protection of the state of Israel. Also: advocacy of or support for this.
Zionism was established as a political movement in 1897 at the initiative of Theodor Herzl (1860–1904). The state of Israel was established in 1948.
1896
I would ask them..to consider whether Zionism..really deserves to be preached down as a standing danger to Israel's progress.
Jewish Chronicle 15 May 10/1
1915
The Provisional Executive Committee for General Zionist Affairs..has also given a remarkable impetus to American Zionism.
J. E. Sampter, Course in Zionism 63
1955
It happened that Jewish workers in considerable numbers were the first to come to Palestine in answer to the appeal of Zionism.
Times 9 May 9/3
1991
The central affirmation of Zionism has always been the right of Jewish immigration and the need for sufficient territory to accommodate those who would want or need to come.
New York Review of Books 7 March 53/1
2013
What could have been a minor academic squabble is transformed here into a wide-ranging discussion of some of the major ideological disputes of the 20th century—Marxism, Zionism, liberalism and the significance of the Russian revolution.
A religious movement represented by a group of independent churches in southern Africa which practise a form of Christianity similar to that of Pentecostal churches, but incorporating elements of African traditional worship and belief. Also: the beliefs and practices of this movement.
1948
One Zionist group..were led by Mngcube for a while... ‘His’ Zionist group is in the process of dissolving into fragments of which some are attracted to heathenism, others to some other form of Zionism.
B. G. M. Sundkler, Bantu Prophets in South Africa v. 167
1994
It was around 1910 that almost all the main strands of Zionism appeared in South Africa, not only the central tradition identified with the Nkonyanes, but the Church of the Light..and the Amanazaretha.
A. Hastings, Church in Afr.: 1450–1950 xi. 502
2016
In South Africa, Zionism is, parallel to Malawi, strongest among the Nguni; the churches are numerous in Swaziland, too.
Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛtl/ but /ˈpɛtl̩i/.
Vowels
iːfleece
ihappy
ɪkit
ɛdress
atrap, bath
ɑːstart, palm, bath
ɒlot
ɔːthought, force
ʌstrut
ʊfoot
uːgoose
əletter
əːnurse
ɪənear
ɛːsquare
ʊəcure
eɪface
ʌɪpride
aʊmouth
əʊgoat
ɔɪvoice
ãgratin
ɒ̃salon
ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)
Other symbols
The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.
Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛd(ə)l/ but /ˈpɛdl̩i/.
Vowels
ifleece, happy
ɪkit
ɛdress
ætrap, bath
ɑlot, palm, cloth, thought
ɑrstart
ɔcloth, thought
ɔrnorth, force
ʊfoot
ugoose
əstrut, comma
ərnurse, letter
ɪ(ə)rnear
ɛ(ə)rsquare
ʊ(ə)rcure
eɪface
aɪpride
aʊmouth
oʊgoat
ɔɪvoice
ɑ̃gratin
æ̃salon
ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)
Other symbols
The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.
Simple text respell breaks words into syllables, separated by a hyphen. The syllable which carries the primary stress is written in capital letters. This key covers both British and U.S. English Simple Text Respell.
Consonants
b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w and z have their standard English values
gguy
jjay
yyore
chchore
khloch
shshore
ththaw
dhthee
zhbeige
Vowels
atrap
ahpalm
airsquare
arstart
arrcarry (British only)
awthought
ayface
a(ng)gratin
edress
eefleece
eerdeer
errmerry
ikit
ighpride
irrmirror
olot (British only)
ohgoat
oogoose
oorcure
orforce
orrsorry (British only)
owmouth
oyvoice
o(ng)salon
ustrut
uhletter
urnurse
urrhurry
uufoot
Frequency
Zionism typically occurs about twice per million words in modern written English.
Zionism is in frequency band 5, which contains words occurring between 1 and 10 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands
Frequency data is computed programmatically, and should be regarded as an estimate.
Frequency of Zionism, n., 1890–2010
* Occurrences per million words in written English
Historical frequency series are derived from Google Books Ngrams (version 2), a data set based on the Google Books corpus of several million books printed in English between 1500 and 2010.
The overall frequency for a given word is calculated by summing frequencies for the main form of the word, any plural or inflected forms, and any major spelling variations.
For sets of homographs (distinct entries that share the same word-form, e.g. mole, n.¹, mole, n.², mole, n.³, etc.), we have estimated the frequency of each homograph entry as a fraction of the total Ngrams frequency for the word-form. This may result in inaccuracies.
Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the Google Books corpus.
Decade
Frequency per million words
1890
0.079
1900
0.26
1910
0.49
1920
0.81
1930
1.3
1940
1.8
1950
2.1
1960
2.5
1970
2.8
1980
2.9
1990
2.5
2000
2.2
2010
2.1
Frequency of Zionism, n., 2017–2024
* Occurrences per million words in written English
Modern frequency series are derived from a corpus of 20 billion words, covering the period from 2017 to the present. The corpus is mainly compiled from online news sources, and covers all major varieties of World English.
Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the corpus.