zidovudine, n.

zidovudine
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zidovudine_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 1993; not fully revised

# 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?

About 0.3occurrences per million words in modern written English

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

/zɪˈdɒvjʊdiːn/
zid-O-vyuud-een
/zɪˈdəʊvjʊdiːn/
zid-OH-vyuud-een

### 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

1. zhuzh, n. 1968–
2. zhuzh, v. 1970–
3. zhuzhy, adj. 1968–
4. ziamet, n. 1807–
5. ziarat, n. 1776–
6. zibeline, n. 1585–
7. zibet, n. 1594–
8. zibet-muff, n. 1685
9. zibib, n. 1836–
10. ziczac, n. 1844–
11. zidovudine, n.1987–
12. Ziegfeld, n. 1913–
13. Ziegler, n. 1957–
14. Ziegler-Natta, n. 1965–
15. Ziehl, n. 1892–
16. Ziehl-Neelsen, n. 1892–
17. ziff, n. 1917–
18. ZIFT, n. 1988–
19. zig, n. 1978–
20. zig, v. 1969–
21. Zigeuner, n. & adj. 1802–

## Etymology

### Summary

Apparently a variant or alteration of another lexical item.
Etymon: azidothymidine n.
Apparently < by arbitrary alteration of azidothymidine n.

## Meaning & use

Pharmacology.

1. 1987–
   = azidothymidine n.
   1. 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
   2. 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
   3. 1990

      > Every week I watch AIDS patients deteriorate and waste away despite Zidovudine (ZDV) therapy.

      Nature 14 June 574
   pharmacology
   1. dideoxycytidine 1965–
      Either of two isomeric pyrimidine nucleoside analogues having the formula C9H13N3O3; spec. (in full 2′,3′-dideoxycytidine) a compound which…
   2. azidothymidine 1974–
      A substituted derivative of thymidine that has been used to inhibit the replication of HIV, the AIDS virus, 3′-azido-3′-deoxythymidine. Abbreviated…
   3. dideoxyinosine 1975–
      Any of several isomeric purine nucleoside analogues which inhibit the replication of certain viruses; spec. (in full 2′,3′-dideoxyinosine), one…
   4. AZT 1985–
      Azidothymidine.
   5. ddC 1987–
      Pharmacology, dideoxycytidine.
   6. Retrovir 1987–
      A proprietary name for: the drug azidothymidine.
   7. zidovudine 1987–
      = azidothymidine, n.
   8. ddI 1989–
      = dideoxyinosine, n.
   9. didanosine 1990–
      = 2′,3′-dideoxyinosine at dideoxyinosine, n.
   10. nevirapine 1991–
       A drug structurally related to the benzodiazepines which inhibits the reverse transcriptase of HIV-1.
   11. zalcitabine 1991–
       = dideoxycytidine, n.
   12. non-nucleoside 1993–
       A non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zɪˈdɒvjʊdiːn/
zid-O-vyuud-een
/zɪˈdəʊvjʊdiːn/
zid-OH-vyuud-een

####

##### 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.

####

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 data is computed programmatically, and should be regarded as an estimate.

### 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

zidovudine, n. was first published in 1993; not fully revised.

zidovudine, n. was last modified in December 2024.