<modern Latinzōnula, diminutive of Latinzōnazonen.: see ‑ulesuffix.
Meaning & use
Anatomy.
1.
1828–
A little zone: applied spec. to the ring-shaped fibrous structure which forms the suspensory ligament of the crystalline lens (zonule of Zinn).
1828
The author has omitted to describe the zonule of Zinn, or rather,..he has totally mistaken the connection between the coloured and colourless parts of the eye.
R. Knox, translation of H. Cloquet, System of Human Anatomy 552
1854
The zonula is a thin transparent..membrane, stretching from the ora serrata retinæ as far as the border of the lens.
Kölliker, Hum. Histology 390
1873
The zonula-fibres arise from the substance of the vitreous behind the ora serrata.
H. Power, translation of Stricker's Manual Histologyvol. III. 354
We have discussed the need for some term to designate the rocks bearing a faunule with several stratigraphers. In the course of one conversation Dr. Weller suggested ‘zonule’, and it has been approved by others... We propose the term, therefore, with the following definition: A zonule is the stratum or strata which contain a faunule, its thickness and area being limited by the vertical and horizontal range of that faunule.
C. L. Fenton & M. A. Fenton in American Naturalistvol. 11 21
1958
A zonule is a biostratigraphic unit that is recognizable in a sedimentary basin or similar restricted area of sedimentation.
Bulletin of Geological Society of Americavol. 69 113/1
1976
The assemblage can be referred to the middle Eocene Proteacidites confragosus Zonule on the basis of the presence of the nominate species.
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.
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 in Latin form zonula /ˈzəʊnjʊlə/ .
Frequency
zonule typically occurs about 0.08 times per million words in modern written English.
zonule is in frequency band 3, which contains words occurring between 0.01 and 0.1 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 zonule, n., 1820–2010
* 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
1820
0.0023
1830
0.0033
1840
0.0068
1850
0.0088
1860
0.013
1870
0.02
1880
0.031
1890
0.035
1900
0.05
1910
0.057
1920
0.081
1930
0.094
1940
0.097
1950
0.097
1960
0.1
1970
0.094
1980
0.091
1990
0.075
2000
0.066
2010
0.063
zonule, n. was first published in 1921; not fully revised.