zidovudinenoun
Factsheet
What does the noun zidovudine mean?
There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun zidovudine. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.
Entry status
OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.
How common is the noun zidovudine?
| 2017 | 0.0083 |
| 2018 | 0.01 |
| 2019 | 0.01 |
| 2020 | 0.015 |
| 2021 | 0.024 |
| 2022 | 0.025 |
| 2023 | 0.028 |
| 2024 | 0.034 |
How is the noun zidovudine pronounced?
British English
Where does the noun zidovudine come from?
Earliest known use
1980s
The earliest known use of the noun zidovudine is in the 1980s.
OED's earliest evidence for zidovudine is from 1987, in British Medical Journal.
zidovudine is apparently a variant or alteration of another lexical item.
Etymons: azidothymidine n.
Nearby entries
- zhuzh, n.1968–
- zhuzh, v.1970–
- zhuzhy, adj.1968–
- ziamet, n.1807–
- ziarat, n.1776–
- zibeline, n.1585–
- zibet, n.1594–
- zibet-muff, n.1685
- zibib, n.1836–
- ziczac, n.1844–
- zidovudine, n.1987–
- Ziegfeld, n.1913–
- Ziegler, n.1957–
- Ziegler-Natta, n.1965–
- Ziehl, n.1892–
- Ziehl-Neelsen, n.1892–
- ziff, n.1917–
- ZIFT, n.1988–
- zig, n.1978–
- zig, v.1969–
- Zigeuner, n. & adj.1802–
Etymology
Meaning & use
- 1987–
- 1987
The Wellcome Foundation has applied to the Department of Health and Social Security for a product licence for zidovudine (AZT), an antiviral drug that has been used..to treat certain..patients with the acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
British Medical Journal 31 January 314/3 - 1989
AZT (also known as zidovudine or Retrovir) began full clinical trials three years ago, and became widely available a year later.
Economist 4 March 85/1 - 1990
Every week I watch AIDS patients deteriorate and waste away despite Zidovudine (ZDV) therapy.
Nature 14 June 574
the world health healing medicines or physic medicines for specific purpose preparations treating or preventing specific ailments [nouns] for HIV infection- dideoxycytidine1965–Either of two isomeric pyrimidine nucleoside analogues having the formula C9H13N3O3; spec. (in full 2′,3′-dideoxycytidine) a compound which…
- azidothymidine1974–A substituted derivative of thymidine that has been used to inhibit the replication of HIV, the AIDS virus, 3′-azido-3′-deoxythymidine. Abbreviated…
- dideoxyinosine1975–Any of several isomeric purine nucleoside analogues which inhibit the replication of certain viruses; spec. (in full 2′,3′-dideoxyinosine), one…
- AZT1985–Azidothymidine.
- ddC1987–Pharmacology, dideoxycytidine.
- Retrovir1987–A proprietary name for: the drug azidothymidine.
- zidovudine1987–= azidothymidine, n.
- ddI1989–= dideoxyinosine, n.
- didanosine1990–= 2′,3′-dideoxyinosine at dideoxyinosine, n.
- nevirapine1991–A drug structurally related to the benzodiazepines which inhibits the reverse transcriptase of HIV-1.
- zalcitabine1991–= dideoxycytidine, n.
- non-nucleoside1993–A non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor.
Pronunciation
British English
Consonants
- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- ɬrhingyll
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing
Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence
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.
View the pronunciation model here.
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
Also with capital initial.Frequency
zidovudine typically occurs about 0.3 times per million words in modern written English.
zidovudine is in frequency band 4, which contains words occurring between 0.1 and 1 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands
Frequency of zidovudine, n., 1980–2010
* 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 |
|---|---|
| 1980 | 0.31 |
| 1990 | 0.31 |
| 2000 | 0.31 |
| 2010 | 0.4 |
Frequency of zidovudine, 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.
| Period | Frequency per million words |
|---|---|
| 2017 | 0.0083 |
| 2018 | 0.01 |
| 2019 | 0.01 |
| 2020 | 0.015 |
| 2021 | 0.024 |
| 2022 | 0.025 |
| 2023 | 0.028 |
| 2024 | 0.034 |