zooming, adj.

zooming
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zooming_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zoomingadjective

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zooming mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the adjective zooming. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.

### How common is the adjective zooming?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1920 | 0.0008
1930 | 0.0011
1940 | 0.0013
1950 | 0.0017
1960 | 0.0026
1970 | 0.0041
1980 | 0.0054
1990 | 0.0062
2000 | 0.007
2010 | 0.0081

### How is the adjective zooming pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzuːmɪŋ/
ZOO-ming

#### U.S. English

/ˈzumɪŋ/
ZOO-ming

### Where does the adjective zooming come from?

Earliest known use

1900s

The earliest known use of the adjective zooming is in the 1900s.

OED's earliest evidence for zooming is from 1904, in the writing of W. B. Nesbit.

It is also recorded as a noun from the 1890s.

zooming is formed within English, by derivation.

Etymons: zoom v.1, ‑ing suffix2.

### Nearby entries

1. zoomancy, n. 1888–
2. zoomania, n. 1807–
3. zoomantist, n. 1861
4. Zoomar, n. 1946–
5. zoomechanical, adj. 1897
6. zoomechanics, n. 1888–1903
7. zoomelanin, n. 1858–
8. zoometric, adj. 1892–
9. zoometry, n. 1878–
10. zooming, n. 1892–
11. zooming, adj.1904–
12. zoom lens, n. 1932–
13. zoomorph, n. 1883–
14. zoomorphic, adj. 1849–
15. zoomorphism, n. 1822–
16. zoomorphize, v. 1940–
17. zoomorphizing, n. 1895–
18. zoomorphosed, adj. 1955–
19. zoom shot, n. 1930–
20. zoomy, adj. 1931–
21. zoomythic, adj. 1889–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by derivation.
Etymons: zoom v.1, ‑ing suffix2.
< zoom v.1 + ‑ing suffix2.

Compare earlier zooming n.

## Meaning & use

1. 1904–
   That zooms (in various senses of zoom v.1).
   1. 1904

      > There cometh upon the zephyr of the evening A zooming zip that bodeth ill for humanity. For it telleth that the mosquito hath girded on its Armor [etc.].

      W. B. Nesbit in Chicago Sunday Tribune 12 June (Comic Supplement) 2/1
   2. 1920

      > Naturally, steep climbing or zooming turns are a different matter altogether.

      Flight 2 September 963/2
   3. 1943

      > Zooming demands for technical books of many kinds..bear witness to the truth of that ancient copy-book maxim, ‘Knowledge is power’.

      Sci. & Mech. Spring 18/1
   4. 1986

      > His hands reach out to feel the air currents from the zooming cars.

      O. P. Adisa, Bake-Face & Other Guava Stories 78
   5. 2011

      > The zooming aerial perspectives, the gulfs of heavenly light over smokestack New Jersey.

      Atlantic Monthly June 42/2
   optics photography aviation
   1. zooming 1904–
      That zooms (in various senses of zoom, v.¹).
   2. zoomable 1972–
      Of a camera, lens, etc.: having an adjustable focal length, so as to allow different degrees of magnification. Cf. zoom, v.¹ 3.
   View in Historical Thesaurus
   1. skirring 1573–
   2. whizzing 1589–
      That whizzes: see the verb.
   3. zooming 1904–
      That zooms (in various senses of zoom, v.¹).
   4. whooshing 1976–
      Frequently attributive.
   View in Historical Thesaurus
   1. zooming 1904–
      That zooms (in various senses of zoom, v.¹).
   View in Historical Thesaurus
   1. zooming 1904–
      That zooms (in various senses of zoom, v.¹).
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzuːmɪŋ/
ZOO-ming

### U.S. English

/ˈzumɪŋ/
ZOO-ming

####

##### 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 /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.

View the pronunciation model here.

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye*
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing

* /d/ also represents a 'tapped' /t/ as in

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.

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

## Frequency

zooming typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.

zooming 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 zooming, adj., 1920–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1920 | 0.0008
1930 | 0.0011
1940 | 0.0013
1950 | 0.0017
1960 | 0.0026
1970 | 0.0041
1980 | 0.0054
1990 | 0.0062
2000 | 0.007
2010 | 0.0081

Originally published as part of the entry for zoom, v.¹

zooming, adj. was revised in June 2017.

zooming, adj. was last modified in July 2023.