zillionth, n. & adj.

zillionth
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zillionth_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2021

# zillionthnoun & adjective

## Factsheet

### What does the word zillionth mean?

There are two meanings listed in OED's entry for the word zillionth. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

### How common is the word zillionth?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1940 | 0.0004
1950 | 0.0011
1960 | 0.0022
1970 | 0.0032
1980 | 0.0045
1990 | 0.0052
2000 | 0.0062
2010 | 0.0074

### How is the word zillionth pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzɪljən(t)θ/
ZIL-yuhntth

#### U.S. English

/ˈzɪljən(t)θ/
ZIL-yuhntth

### Where does the word zillionth come from?

Earliest known use

1940s

The earliest known use of the word zillionth is in the 1940s.

OED's earliest evidence for zillionth is from 1940, in Charleston (West Virginia) Gazette.

zillionth is formed within English, by derivation.

Etymons: zillion n., ‑th suffix2.

### Nearby entries

1. zilch, n. & adj. 1925–
2. zilch, v. 1957–
3. zill, n. 1754–
4. zilla, n. 1772–
5. -zilla, comb. form
6. zilladar, n. 1763–
7. Zil lane, n. 1985–
8. zilla parishad, n. 1957–
9. zillion, n. & adj. 1920–
10. zillionaire, n. 1926–
11. zillionth, n. & adj.1940–
12. zimb, n. 1790–
13. Zimba, n. 1625–
14. Zimbabwe, n. 1891–
15. Zimbabwean, adj. & n. 1961–
16. zimbel, n. 1888–
17. zimme, n. 1848–63
18. Zimmer, n. 1951–
19. zina, n. 1817–
20. zinc, n. 1651–
21. zinc, v. 1843–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by derivation.
Etymons: zillion n., ‑th suffix2.
< zillion n. + ‑th suffix2, after millionth n., billionth n., etc.

## Meaning & use

colloquial (originally U.S.).

1. noun
   1. 1940–
      A minute fraction of something.
      1. 1940

         > The chatter arose again from this and that one that by adopting his idea there would be a zillionth better this and umpsteen [sic] fewer of that to contend with.

         Charleston (West Virginia) Gazette 20 August 6/1
      2. 1972

         > We have strict controls on television... We don't hear a zillionth of what you hear.

         Good Housekeeping April 69/1
      3. 2018

         > Suspiciously similar to lots of the brands above but a zillionth of the price.

         Daily Telegraph (Australia) (Nexis) 26 August 118
      U.S. English colloquial and slang
      1. infinitesimal 1706–
         (Chiefly Mathematics) As a fraction or fractional quantity. The inverse or reciprocal of an infinite quantity; †an infinitely small fraction or part…
      2. zillionth 1940–
         A minute fraction of something.
      View in Historical Thesaurus
2. adjective
   1. 1941–
      Used hyperbolically to emphasize that something has happened on many other occasions: ‘umpteenth’.
      1. 1941

         > Getting ready to climb into an umpire's chair for the zillionth time in his life.

         Washington Post 3 September 19/4
      2. 1984

         > For the zillionth time, the hardback edition only is credited in reviews.

         Listener 6 December 26/3
      3. 2010

         > My 12-month-old son James was pressing the red button on a plastic tortoise which would initiate the zillionth play of Old MacDonald that day.

         Daily Telegraph 9 September 28/1
      U.S. English colloquial and slang
      1. bi-diurnal 1851–
      2. three-time 1908–
         That has occurred or been done three times; of a person, to whom something has happened, or who has achieved something, three times; spec. three-time…
      3. zillionth 1941–
         Used hyperbolically to emphasize that something has happened on many other occasions: ‘umpteenth’.
      View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzɪljən(t)θ/
ZIL-yuhntth

### U.S. English

/ˈzɪljən(t)θ/
ZIL-yuhntth

####

##### 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

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

zillionth 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 zillionth, n. & adj., 1940–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1940 | 0.0004
1950 | 0.0011
1960 | 0.0022
1970 | 0.0032
1980 | 0.0045
1990 | 0.0052
2000 | 0.0062
2010 | 0.0074

Originally published as part of the entry for zillion, n. & adj.

zillionth, n. & adj. was revised in March 2021.

zillionth, n. & adj. was last modified in July 2023.