zooid, n.

zooid
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zooid_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zooidnoun

## Earlier version

- zooid, n. in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zooid mean?

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

### How common is the noun zooid?

About 0.1occurrences per million words in modern written English

1850 | 0.26
1860 | 0.38
1870 | 0.36
1880 | 0.4
1890 | 0.42
1900 | 0.39
1910 | 0.27
1920 | 0.29
1930 | 0.26
1940 | 0.23
1950 | 0.24
1960 | 0.23
1970 | 0.18
1980 | 0.17
1990 | 0.14
2000 | 0.1
2010 | 0.087

### How is the noun zooid pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzəʊɔɪd/
ZOH-oyd
/ˈzuːɔɪd/
ZOO-oyd

#### U.S. English

/ˈzoʊˌɔɪd/
ZOH-oyd

### Where does the noun zooid come from?

Earliest known use

1850s

The earliest known use of the noun zooid is in the 1850s.

OED's earliest evidence for zooid is from 1851, in a paper by Thomas Huxley, biologist and science educationist.

It is also recorded as an adjective from the 1840s.

zooid is a borrowing from Greek, combined with an English element.

Etymons: Greek ζῷον, ‑oid suffix.

### Nearby entries

1. zoogonidium, n. 1857–
2. zoogony, n. 1675–
3. zoograph, n. 1623
4. zoographer, n. 1646–
5. zoographic, adj. 1741–
6. zoographical, adj. 1651–
7. zoographically, adv. 1835–
8. zoographist, n. 1749–1874
9. zoography, n. 1593–
10. zoogyroscope, n. 1880–
11. zooid, n.1851–
12. zooid, adj. 1849
13. zooidal, adj. 1858–
14. zooidogamous, adj. 1891–
15. zookeeper, n. 1886–
16. zookeeping, n. 1929–
17. Zookers, int. 1620–
18. Zooks, int. 1600–
19. zoolater, n. 1876–
20. zoolatrous, adj. 1876–
21. zoolatry, n. 1784–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Greek, combined with an English element.
Etymons: Greek ζῷον, ‑oid suffix.
< ancient Greek ζῷον animal (see zoon n.) + ‑oid suffix.

Compare Byzantine Greek ζῳοειδής (adjective) resembling an animal. Compare also scientific Latin zoidia (see zoidiophilous adj.), French zooïde (1847 in a use…
< ancient Greek ζῷον animal (see zoon n.) + ‑oid suffix.

Compare Byzantine Greek ζῳοειδής (adjective) resembling an animal. Compare also scientific Latin zoidia (see zoidiophilous adj.), French zooïde (1847 in a use distinct from and independent of Huxley's).

Compare slightly earlier zooid adj. and slightly later zoid n.

## Meaning & use

Biology.

1. 1851–
   An organism or (esp. in early use) motile cell thought to resemble an animal but not to be one in a strict or full sense; esp. an invertebrate animal generated by budding, division, or other means of asexual reproduction; spec. any of the individuals which make up a colonial animal (bryozoan, cnidarian, etc.) and which often have specialized forms and functions. Frequently attributive. Cf. zoon n.
   nurse zooid: see the first element.
   Frequently as the second element in names of specialized forms of zooid, as anthozooid, gastrozooid, trophozooid, etc.
   1. 1851

      > In strictness both Salpa B and Salpa A are only parts of individuals,—are organs... It is proposed therefore to call them, and all pseudo-individual forms resembling them, ‘zoöids’, bearing in mind always that while the distinction between zoöid and individual is real,..that between zoöid and organ is purely conventional.

      T. H. Huxley in Philosophical Transactions (Royal Society) vol. 141 579
   2. 1865

      > The generative system is thrown off as it were, in the form of male and female zooids, destined to live but for a brief period, and more motile than the parent stock.

      Natural History Review vol. 5 372
   3. 1870

      > In the Polyzoa polymorphic zooids are produced by gemmation.

      G. Rolleston, Forms of Animal Life p. lxxxvi
   4. 1880–1

      > The flagella are developed..by both the motile and sedentary zooids [in the genus Colacium].

      W. Saville-Kent, Manual of Infusoria vol. I. 394
   5. 1888

      > These zooids were a lively lot, and we had no difficulty in tracing the vibratory motion to the base of the spermatheca.

      Journal Microsc. & Nat. Science vol. 1 237
   6. 1910

      > Around these tubes the uninjured zooids divide and grow with increased activity.

      F. Wood-Jones, Coral & Atolls ix. 110
   7. 1967

      > When zooids are excited via the normal pathway of the putative rachidial nerve net, they luminesce only after the second or subsequent shocks.

      Biological Bulletin vol. 133 459
   8. 1983

      > Zooid rows continue to proliferate throughout growth [in a bryozoan], allowing branches to widen proximal to a bifurcation.

      Paleobiology vol. 9 245/2
   9. 2010

      > Funicular tissue is associated with minute communication pores in the zooid walls.

      Biol. Bulletin vol. 219 221/1
   10. 2013

       > Each type of zooid has a specific role and cannot survive without the others.

       Observer 13 October (Tech Monthly Supplement) 23/2
   invertebrates ecology
   1. zoonite 1838–
      A body segment of an articulated or segmented animal, esp. such a segment regarded as a distinct organism; a metamere or somite. Cf. zonite, n.…
   2. zooid 1851–
      An organism or (esp. in early use) motile cell thought to resemble an animal but not to be one in a strict or full sense; esp. an invertebrate…
   3. zoon 1851–1905
      A distinct organism (whether a single entity, as in vertebrates, or a colonial form consisting of zooids) regarded as being the whole product of a…
   4. zoid 1856–
      = zooid, n.
   View in Historical Thesaurus
   1. zooid 1851–
      An organism or (esp. in early use) motile cell thought to resemble an animal but not to be one in a strict or full sense; esp. an invertebrate…
   2. anthozooid 1858–
      A polyp; spec. an individual polyp of a colonial anthozoan. In later use also: = anthozoan, n.
   3. polypite 1859–
      Zoology. An individual organism of a colonial cnidarian; a polyp. Now rare.
   4. polyp 1888–
      Zoology. Any of various aquatic sessile invertebrates of relatively simple structure which have a mouth surrounded by tentacles and are either…
   View in Historical Thesaurus
   1. zooid 1851–
      An organism or (esp. in early use) motile cell thought to resemble an animal but not to be one in a strict or full sense; esp. an invertebrate…
   View in Historical Thesaurus
   1. individual 1746–
      Zoology. Each of the distinct beings which make up a colonial organism, and which typically have different forms and functions. Cf. person, n. III.9.
   2. zoonite 1838–
      A body segment of an articulated or segmented animal, esp. such a segment regarded as a distinct organism; a metamere or somite. Cf. zonite, n.…
   3. zooid 1851–
      An organism or (esp. in early use) motile cell thought to resemble an animal but not to be one in a strict or full sense; esp. an invertebrate…
   4. zoon 1851–1905
      A distinct organism (whether a single entity, as in vertebrates, or a colonial form consisting of zooids) regarded as being the whole product of a…
   5. zoid 1856–
      = zooid, n.
   6. allozooid 1857–61
      A detached vegetative bud or zooid which is different in form from its parent animal.
   7. person 1876–
      Zoology. Each of the individual zooids of a colonial organism. Now rare.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzəʊɔɪd/
ZOH-oyd
/ˈzuːɔɪd/
ZOO-oyd

### U.S. English

/ˈzoʊˌɔɪd/
ZOH-oyd

####

##### 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

## Forms

### Variant forms

1. 1800s
   zöoid
2. 1800s–1900s
   zoöid
3. 1800s–
   zooid

## Frequency

zooid typically occurs about 0.1 times per million words in modern written English.

zooid 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 zooid, n., 1850–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1850 | 0.26
1860 | 0.38
1870 | 0.36
1880 | 0.4
1890 | 0.42
1900 | 0.39
1910 | 0.27
1920 | 0.29
1930 | 0.26
1940 | 0.23
1950 | 0.24
1960 | 0.23
1970 | 0.18
1980 | 0.17
1990 | 0.14
2000 | 0.1
2010 | 0.087

### Frequency of zooid, 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
2018 | 0.0022
2019 | 0.0025
2020 | 0.0045
2021 | 0.0079
2022 | 0.0086
2023 | 0.0085
2024 | 0.01

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. anthozooid, adj. & n. 1851–
   A polyp; spec. an individual polyp of a colonial…

1. allozooid, n. 1857–61
   A detached vegetative bud or zooid which is…

1. isozooid, n. 1858–
   A ‘zooid’, or individual of a compound or…

1. zooidal, adj. 1858–
   Of or relating to a zooid or zooids.

1. diphyzooid, n. 1861–
   A free-swimming organism consisting of a group of…

1. tritozooid, n. 1861–
   A tertiary zooid, produced from a deuterozooid.

1. malacozooid, n. 1863
   A protozoan resembling a mollusc in some way.

1. deuterozooid, n. 1870–
   A secondary zooid, produced by gemmation from a zooid.

1. gonozooid, n. 1870–
   One of the sexual zooids enclosed in certain of…

1. cyathozooid, n. 1877–
   An abortive first stage of the embryo of certain…

1. gastrozooid, n. 1879–
   A nutritive zooid in colony-forming Hydrozoa and…

1. autozooid, n. 1881–
   In some bryozoans and anthozoans: a normal…

1. microzooid, n. & adj. 1881–
   A relatively or abnormally small zooid (in its…

1. siphonozooid, n. 1881–
   (See quots.).

1. polyzooid, adj. 1884
   Regarded as consisting of a colony of zooids.

1. phorozooid, n. 1888–
   In thaliacean tunicates of the order Doliolida: a…

1. trophozooid, n. 1888–
   (In a hydrozoan or other colonial organism) a…

1. tetrazooid, n. 1889–
   Any one of the four ascidiozooids developed from…

1. nematozooid, n. 1890
   A nematocyst-bearing filament of a siphonophore…

1. zooidogamous, adj. 1891–
   Designating a type of fertilization resembling…

1. oozooid, n. 1892–
   In some tunicates: the zooid arising from the…

1. heterozooid, n. 1909–
   Any reduced or modified form of the typical…

1. kenozooid, n. 1909–
   In a colonial bryozoan of the phylum Ectoprocta…

zooid, n. was revised in June 2017.

zooid, n. was last modified in September 2024.