zoner, n.

zoner
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zoner_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 1986; not fully revised

# zonernoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zoner mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun zoner. 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 zoner?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

2017 | 0.0016
2018 | 0.0029
2019 | 0.0028
2020 | 0.0028
2021 | 0.0042
2022 | 0.0037
2023 | 0.0029
2024 | 0.0031

### Where does the noun zoner come from?

Earliest known use

1960s

The earliest known use of the noun zoner is in the 1960s.

OED's earliest evidence for zoner is from 1962, in Punch.

### Nearby entries

1. zone electrophoresis, n. 1952–
2. zone fossil, n. 1904–
3. zoneless, adj. 1748–
4. zonelet, n. 1855–
5. zone level, v. 1974–
6. zone leveller, n. 1956–
7. zone levelling, n. 1953–
8. zone-melt, v. 1982–
9. zone melting, n. 1952–
10. zone plate, n. 1890–
11. zoner, n.1962–
12. zone-refine, v. 1962–
13. zone refiner, n. 1959–
14. zone refining, n. 1952–
15. zone therapy, n. 1915–
16. zone time, n. 1908–
17. Zonian, n. 1910–
18. zonic, adj. 1797–
19. zoning, n. a1821–
20. zonite, n. 1860–
21. zonitic, adj. 1888–

## Meaning & use

1. 1962–
   One employed in the application of planning restrictions to particular areas.
   Stressed as ˈzoner.
   1. 1962

      > Planners and zoners won't apparently make up their minds.

      Punch 6 June 848/2
   2. 1976

      > This district contains about 1,000 homes approved by town zoners..after they were assured restrictive deed clauses would make the district a ‘permanent adult community’.

      Daily Telegraph 4 April 3/6
   1. zoner 1962–
      One employed in the application of planning restrictions to particular areas.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Frequency

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

zoner 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 zoner, n., 1960–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1960 | 0.0083
1970 | 0.0072
1980 | 0.0064
1990 | 0.0064
2000 | 0.0047
2010 | 0.0036

### Frequency of zoner, 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 | 0.0016
2018 | 0.0029
2019 | 0.0028
2020 | 0.0028
2021 | 0.0042
2022 | 0.0037
2023 | 0.0029
2024 | 0.0031

Originally published as part of the entry for zone, v.

zone, v. was first published in 1921; not fully revised.