zoogamete, n.

zoogamete
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zoogamete_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zoogametenoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zoogamete mean?

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

### How common is the noun zoogamete?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1880 | 0.0017
1890 | 0.0021
1900 | 0.0028
1910 | 0.0027
1920 | 0.0033
1930 | 0.0029
1940 | 0.0029
1950 | 0.0028
1960 | 0.0023
1970 | 0.0014
1980 | 0.0011
1990 | 0.0005
2000 | 0.0002
2010 | 0.0001

### How is the noun zoogamete pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzuːə(ʊ)ɡəˌmiːt/
ZOO-oh-guh-meet
/ˌzuːə(ʊ)ˈɡamiːt/
zoo-oh-GAM-eet

#### U.S. English

/ˈzoʊəɡəˌmit/
ZOH-uh-guh-meet
/ˌzoʊəˈɡæˌmit/
zoh-uh-GAM-eet

### Where does the noun zoogamete come from?

Earliest known use

1870s

The earliest known use of the noun zoogamete is in the 1870s.

OED's earliest evidence for zoogamete is from 1879, in Journal of Royal Microscopical Society.

### Nearby entries

1. zoodendrium, n. 1880–
2. Zoodikers, int. 1749–98
3. zoodynamic, adj.?1819–
4. zoodynamics, n. 1888–
5. zooecial, adj. 1873–
6. zooecium, n. 1871–
7. zooerythrin, n. 1871–
8. zooflagellate, n. & adj. 1911–
9. zooful, n. 1914–
10. zoofulvin, n. 1871–
11. zoogamete, n.1879–
12. zoogene, n. 1820–69
13. zoogenic, adj. 1842–
14. zoogeny, n. 1826–
15. zoogeographer, n. 1868–
16. zoogeographic, adj. 1875–
17. zoogeographical, adj. 1864–
18. zoogeographically, adv. 1883–
19. zoogeography, n. 1851–
20. zoogeological, adj. 1841–
21. zoogeologist, n. 1844–

## Meaning & use

1. 1879–
   (In algae and fungi) a motile gamete; = planogamete n.
   1. 1879

      > A connecting link between the conjugation of similar zoospores (zoogametes), and the impregnation of a passive oosphere by mobile antheroids.

      Journal of Royal Microscopical Society vol. 2 935
   2. 1956

      > Many river algae produce zoospores or zoogametes.

      Botanical Review vol. 22 318
   3. 2003

      > The pheromone..elicits no response in..female zoogametes.

      J. H. Burnett, Fungal Populations & Species vii. 137/1
   fungi physiology
   1. gamete 1878–
      Each of the two reproductive cells, typically haploid and distinguishable into male and female types, which fuse to form a zygote in sexual…
   2. zoogamete 1879–
      (In algae and fungi) a motile gamete; = planogamete, n.
   3. planogamete 1880–
      In algae and fungi: a motile gamete or conjugating cell. Also called zoogamete.
   4. macrogamete 1888–
      The larger (usually female) gamete in an organism where the male and female gametes differ in size.
   5. microgamete 1888–
      The smaller (usually male) gamete in an organism that produces gametes of two different sizes.
   6. isogamete 1891–
      Each of the two uniting cells, in isogamy.
   7. megagamete 1891–
      The larger (usually female) gamete in an organism in which the male and female gametes are unequal in size; a macrogamete.
   8. oogamete 1891–
      Either gamete in oogamous reproduction.
   9. progamete 1892–
      A cell or structure able to give rise to one or more gametes; spec. = progametangium, n.
   10. heterogamete 1897–
       Either of a pair of conjugating gametes that differ in character or form.
   11. ovum 1900–
       Botany. The female gamete or egg cell of a plant, esp. of an oogamous alga.
   12. gametocyst 1901–
       a. = macrogamete, n. (rare); b. Botany a unicellular gametangium (now rare); c. a structure containing gametocytes or gametes in certain protozoans.
   13. non-crossover 1914–
       A chromosome that has not undergone crossing over during meiosis; a gamete that has one or more such chromosomes; (also) an individual who does not…
   14. merogamete 1925–
       Originally: †a gamete that is smaller and of a different structure than vegetative cells of the same organism (obsolete). Later: a protistan…
   15. hologamete 1926–
       A gamete that is morphologically similar to the vegetative cell and is not specially formed by fission.
   16. anisogamete
       Either of two unequal uniting gametes.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzuːə(ʊ)ɡəˌmiːt/
ZOO-oh-guh-meet
/ˌzuːə(ʊ)ˈɡamiːt/
zoo-oh-GAM-eet
/ˈzəʊə(ʊ)ɡəˌmiːt/
ZOH-oh-guh-meet
/ˌzəʊə(ʊ)ˈɡamiːt/
zoh-oh-GAM-eet

### U.S. English

/ˈzoʊəɡəˌmit/
ZOH-uh-guh-meet
/ˌzoʊəˈɡæˌmit/
zoh-uh-GAM-eet
/ˈzuəɡəˌmit/
ZOO-uh-guh-meet
/ˌzuəˈɡæˌmit/
zoo-uh-GAM-eet

####

##### 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

## Frequency

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

zoogamete is in frequency band 1, which contains words occurring fewer than 0.001 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 zoogamete, n., 1880–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1880 | 0.0017
1890 | 0.0021
1900 | 0.0028
1910 | 0.0027
1920 | 0.0033
1930 | 0.0029
1940 | 0.0029
1950 | 0.0028
1960 | 0.0023
1970 | 0.0014
1980 | 0.0011
1990 | 0.0005
2000 | 0.0002
2010 | 0.0001

Originally published as part of the entry for zoo-, comb. form

zoo-, comb. form was revised in June 2017.