modern Latin, <Greekζύγωμα, <ζυγόν yoke. Compare Frenchzygome, †zigome.
Meaning & use
Anatomy.
1684–
The bony arch on each side of the skull in vertebrates, consisting of the malar or jugal bone (cheek-bone) and its connections, and forming a junction between the cranial and facial bones; the zygomatic arch; also, in restricted sense, some part of this, as the malar bone itself, the zygomatic process of the temporal bone, or the process of the malar which articulates with this.
1684
Zygoma is the jugal Bone about the Temples.
translation of S. Blankaart, Physical Dictionary 302
1739
There appeared near the Zigoma.., by the Wing of the Nostril, a slender Fluctuation.
J. Sparrow, translation of H. F. Le Dran, Observations in Surgery iii. 13
1804
The fracture ran horizontally, about a quarter of an inch above the zygoma.
J. Abernethy, Surgical Observations 175
1825
The Temporal muscle is seen in the temples, and its tendon passing under the zygoma.
A. Monro, Elements of Anatomy of Human Bodyvol. I. 379
a1842
The zygoma, a process of the cheekbone, which joins the temporal bone.
C. Bell, Anat. & Philos. Expression (ed. 3) (1844) iv. 109
1855
At the lower part of the squamous portion there is an outgrowth of bone, termed the ‘zygoma’.
L. Holden, Human Osteology 57
1893
A ridge of bone, the supra-mastoid crest, runs immediately above the external auditory meatus, and is continued onwards to the zygoma.
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.
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.
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
Plural zygomata, zygomas. Also 1700s zigoma.
Frequency
zygoma typically occurs about 0.1 times per million words in modern written English.
zygoma 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 zygoma, n., 1750–2010
* 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
1750
0.024
1760
0.034
1770
0.03
1780
0.039
1790
0.049
1800
0.075
1810
0.094
1820
0.15
1830
0.19
1840
0.23
1850
0.26
1860
0.29
1870
0.28
1880
0.3
1890
0.32
1900
0.29
1910
0.27
1920
0.25
1930
0.21
1940
0.17
1950
0.16
1960
0.16
1970
0.16
1980
0.15
1990
0.14
2000
0.14
2010
0.13
zygoma, n. was first published in 1921; not fully revised.