There are two meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun Zionite, one of which is labelled obsolete. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.
How common is the noun Zionite?
Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English
1830
0.0021
1840
0.0036
1850
0.0032
1860
0.003
1870
0.0032
1880
0.0034
1890
0.0037
1900
0.004
1910
0.0033
1920
0.0036
1930
0.0035
1940
0.0031
1950
0.0032
1960
0.0031
1970
0.0029
1980
0.0026
1990
0.0025
2000
0.0028
2010
0.0025
How is the noun Zionite pronounced?
British English
/ˈzʌɪənʌɪt/
ZIGH-uh-night
U.S. English
/ˈzaɪəˌnaɪt/
ZIGH-uh-night
Where does the noun Zionite come from?
Earliest known use
late 1500s
The earliest known use of the noun Zionite is in the late 1500s.
OED's earliest evidence for Zionite is from 1596, in the writing of Anthony Copley, writer and conspirator.
A member of a religious group believing in an idealized society or Zion (Zionn. 2a). Now historical.
1596
Oh Sionites no more, But to your tacklings stand like men of honor Like men of Sion, one to twentie score.
A. Copley, Fig for Fortune 75
1675
The Sionites, the people of God, the citizens of Zion.
T. Brooks, Paradice Opened 85
1834
Koch and Frick styled themselves and their followers ‘Zionites’. They professed their belief in the universal restoration to God of all rational beings that have ever fallen.
London Literary Gazette 22 November 779/2
1886
Founded in 1737 by the followers of Elias Eller, a religious enthusiast, Ronsdorf received town-rights in 1745. The Ronsdorf sect, the members of which called themselves Zionites, is now extinct.
Encyclopædia Britannicavol. XX. 842/2
2013
Some Zionites..invited Parham to address inhabitants interested in the Pentecostal message.
† An advocate or supporter of a movement among Jewish people for the re-establishment of a Jewish nation in Palestine. Cf. Zionistn. A.2. Obsolete. rare.
1895
The most noteworthy agitation of this kind is the nationalistic movement found among sections of the Jews everywhere over the globe, looking to a return to Israel... The protagonists of this movement are known as the Zionites.
Literary Digest 13 July 19/1
1922
If the Zionites will look into the aforesaid codicil they will find a letter from Paul address [sic] to the Hebrews.
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
Forms
Variant forms
1500s–1600s
Sionite
1800s–
Zionite
Frequency
Zionite typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.
Zionite is in frequency band 2, which contains words occurring between 0.001 and 0.01 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 Zionite, n., 1830–2010
* 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.