Zn, n.

zn
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zn_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 2013

# Znnoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun Zn mean?

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

### How common is the noun Zn?

About 2occurrences per million words in modern written English

1810 | 0.015
1820 | 0.015
1830 | 0.024
1840 | 0.035
1850 | 0.062
1860 | 0.11
1870 | 0.19
1880 | 0.3
1890 | 0.42
1900 | 0.53
1910 | 0.64
1920 | 0.75
1930 | 0.94
1940 | 1.2
1950 | 1.5
1960 | 1.9
1970 | 2.4
1980 | 2.7
1990 | 2.6
2000 | 2.1
2010 | 1.9

### How is the noun Zn pronounced?

#### British English

/ˌzɛdˈɛn/
zed-EN

#### U.S. English

/ˌziˈɛn/
zee-EN

### Where does the noun Zn come from?

Earliest known use

1810s

The earliest known use of the noun Zn is in the 1810s.

OED's earliest evidence for Zn is from 1814.

Zn is formed within English, by clipping or shortening; modelled on a Latin lexical item.

Etymons: zinc n.

### Nearby entries

1. zizz, int. & n. 1824–
2. zizzing, n. 1884–
3. zizzing, adj. 1919–
4. zizzy, adj. 1843–
5. Zlid, n. 1616–1785
6. Z'life, n. 1689
7. Z line, n. 1916–
8. Z-list, n. & adj. 1979–
9. Z-lister, n. 1999–
10. zloty, n. 1915–
11. Zn, n.1814–
12. -zoa, comb. form
13. -zoan, comb. form
14. zoantharian, adj. & n. 1887–
15. zoanthid, n. 1870–
16. zoanthidan, adj. 1888–
17. zoanthodeme, n. 1877–
18. zoanthoid, adj. 1854–
19. zoanthropic, adj. 1891–
20. zoanthropy, n. 1856–
21. zoanthus, n. 1841–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by clipping or shortening; modelled on a Latin lexical item.
Etymon: zinc n.
Symbolic abbreviation for zinc n., after use as symbolic abbreviation for scientific Latin zincum zinc n. in the system introduced by Berzelius (see quot. 1814).

## Meaning & use

Chemistry.

1. 1814–
   The element zinc.
   1. 1814

      > Zincum, zinc (Zn).

      translation of J. J. Berzelius in Annals of Philosophy vol. 3 358
   2. 1865

      > The numbers..corresponding to the elements Bi, Pb, Au, Pt, Sn, Zn, Cu, Ni, Fe, and S..are multiplied by the respective specific heats of these bodies.

      Philosophical Transactions (Royal Society) vol. 155 73
   3. 1906

      > The residue contains In, with some Zn.

      H. F. Morley & M. M. P. Muir, Watts' Dictionary Chemistry vol. III. 2/1
   4. 1956

      > The Zn coating on galvanized wire shows no preferred orientation.

      Journal of Iron & Steel Institute vol. 183 99/2
   5. 2011

      > Zn deficiency generally shows up in the early stages of growth, when the plant is only a few inches high.

      Irish Independent (Nexis) 12 April
   chemistry
   1. zinc 1651–
      A hard bluish-white metal (commercially known as spelter, n.), brittle at ordinary temperatures, but malleable and ductile between 200° and 250°F…
   2. spelter 1661–
      Zinc. (Now only Commerce) Also locally applied to various ores.
   3. zingho 1743
      Zinc.
   4. Zn 1814–
      The element zinc.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˌzɛdˈɛn/
zed-EN

### U.S. English

/ˌziˈɛn/
zee-EN

####

##### 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

Zn typically occurs about twice per million words in modern written English.

Zn 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 Zn, n., 1810–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1810 | 0.015
1820 | 0.015
1830 | 0.024
1840 | 0.035
1850 | 0.062
1860 | 0.11
1870 | 0.19
1880 | 0.3
1890 | 0.42
1900 | 0.53
1910 | 0.64
1920 | 0.75
1930 | 0.94
1940 | 1.2
1950 | 1.5
1960 | 1.9
1970 | 2.4
1980 | 2.7
1990 | 2.6
2000 | 2.1
2010 | 1.9

### Frequency of Zn, 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 | 0.2
2018 | 0.28
2019 | 0.38
2020 | 0.53
2021 | 0.67
2022 | 0.83
2023 | 0.91
2024 | 0.95

Originally published as part of the entry for Z, n.

Zn, n. was first published in December 2013.

Zn, n. was last modified in July 2023.