zoantharianadjective & noun
Factsheet
What does the word zoantharian mean?
There are two meanings listed in OED's entry for the word zoantharian. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, 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 word zoantharian?
| 1850 | 0.0014 |
| 1860 | 0.0011 |
| 1870 | 0.0011 |
| 1880 | 0.001 |
| 1890 | 0.0008 |
| 1900 | 0.0007 |
| 1910 | 0.0005 |
| 1920 | 0.0007 |
| 1930 | 0.001 |
| 1940 | 0.0012 |
| 1950 | 0.0016 |
| 1960 | 0.0018 |
| 1970 | 0.0019 |
| 1980 | 0.002 |
| 1990 | 0.0021 |
| 2000 | 0.0021 |
| 2010 | 0.002 |
How is the word zoantharian pronounced?
British English
Where does the word zoantharian come from?
Earliest known use
1880s
The earliest known use of the word zoantharian is in the 1880s.
OED's earliest evidence for zoantharian is from 1887, in the writing of Henry Nicholson, biologist and geologist.
zoantharian is a borrowing from Latin, combined with an English element.
Etymons: Latin Zōanthāria, ‑an suffix.
Nearby entries
- zizzy, adj.1843–
- Zlid, n.1616–1785
- Z'life, n.1689
- Z line, n.1916–
- Z-list, n. & adj.1979–
- Z-lister, n.1999–
- zloty, n.1915–
- Zn, n.1814–
- -zoa, comb. form
- -zoan, comb. form
- zoantharian, adj. & n.1887–
- zoanthid, n.1870–
- zoanthidan, adj.1888–
- zoanthodeme, n.1877–
- zoanthoid, adj.1854–
- zoanthropic, adj.1891–
- zoanthropy, n.1856–
- zoanthus, n.1841–
- zoarial, adj.1896–
- zoarium, n.1880–
- zob, n.1911–
Etymology
Summary
Meaning & use
- adjective
- 1887–Belonging to the Zoantharia, one of the main divisions of Actinozoa (contrasted with Alcyonaria), containing the sea-anemones and other (often flower-like) animals, usually with simple tentacles and parts arranged in sixes (hexacorallan n.).
- 1887
Transverse section of a simple Zoantharian Coral (Cyathina Bowerbanki).
H. A. Nicholson, Manual of Zoology (ed. 7) 186 - 1888
The Zoantharian mesenterial filaments.
G. Rolleston & W. H. Jackson, Forms of Animal Life (ed. 2) 733 (note)
the world animals invertebrates subkingdom Metazoa grade Diploblastica phylum Coelenterata [adjectives] of or relating to the Anthozoa belonging to order Zoantharia- zoantharian1887–Belonging to the Zoantharia, one of the main divisions of Actinozoa (contrasted with Alcyonaria), containing the sea-anemones and other (often…
- noun
- A member of the Zoantharia.
Pronunciation
British English
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
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.
Frequency
zoantharian typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.
zoantharian 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 of zoantharian, adj. & 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 | 0.0014 |
| 1860 | 0.0011 |
| 1870 | 0.0011 |
| 1880 | 0.001 |
| 1890 | 0.0008 |
| 1900 | 0.0007 |
| 1910 | 0.0005 |
| 1920 | 0.0007 |
| 1930 | 0.001 |
| 1940 | 0.0012 |
| 1950 | 0.0016 |
| 1960 | 0.0018 |
| 1970 | 0.0019 |
| 1980 | 0.002 |
| 1990 | 0.0021 |
| 2000 | 0.0021 |
| 2010 | 0.002 |