zirconate, n.

zirconate
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zirconate_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2021

# zirconatenoun

## Earlier version

- zirconate in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zirconate mean?

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

### How common is the noun zirconate?

About 0.04occurrences per million words in modern written English

1860 | 0.0034
1870 | 0.0039
1880 | 0.0043
1890 | 0.0057
1900 | 0.0074
1910 | 0.0087
1920 | 0.01
1930 | 0.016
1940 | 0.021
1950 | 0.025
1960 | 0.029
1970 | 0.033
1980 | 0.038
1990 | 0.041
2000 | 0.04
2010 | 0.041

### How is the noun zirconate pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzəːkəneɪt/
ZUR-kuh-nayt

#### U.S. English

/ˈzərkəˌneɪt/
ZURR-kuh-nayt

### Where does the noun zirconate come from?

Earliest known use

1820s

The earliest known use of the noun zirconate is in the 1820s.

OED's earliest evidence for zirconate is from 1820, in Philosophical Magazine.

zirconate is a borrowing from French.

Etymons: French zirconate.

### Nearby entries

1. zip-up, adj. & n. 1927–
2. zip wire, n. 1971–
3. zir, pron. 1993–
4. zir, adj. 1993–
5. ziraleet, n. 1794–
6. ziram, n. 1950–
7. zirbal, adj.?a1425–
8. zirbus, n. a1400–
9. zircaloy, n. 1953–
10. zircon, n. 1794–
11. zirconate, n.1820–
12. zircon blue, n. & adj. 1928–
13. zircon earth, n. 1794–
14. zirconia, n. 1794–
15. zirconian, adj. 1802–
16. zirconic, adj. 1804–
17. zirconite, n. 1806–
18. zirconitic, adj. 1883–
19. zirconium, n. 1808–
20. zircon-like, adj. 1857–
21. zircono-, comb. form

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from French.
Etymon: French zirconate.
< French zirconate (M. Chevreul 1819, in Bull. des sci. par la Soc. Philomatique de Paris 187) < zircone zirconia (< zirc- in zircon zircon n. + ‑one ‑one suffix) + ‑ate ‑ate suffix1.

## Meaning & use

Chemistry.

1. 1820–
   A salt containing oxyanions of zirconium; esp. a salt of the anion ZrO32−. Chiefly as a formative element in chemical names.
   1. 1820

      > There remained a zirconate of potash [French zirconate de potasse], blended with oxides of iron, of copper, and of silver.

      Philosophical Magazine vol. 55 377
   2. 1922

      > The dioxide, ZrO2... It forms a series of zirconates, e.g., Na2ZrO3.

      T. M. Lowry, Inorganic Chemistry xxxv. 680
   3. 2005

      > Lead zirconate titanate..is a ferroelectric ceramic used in piezoelectric and dielectric applications.

      R. E. Newnham, Properties of Materials ix. 59
   chemistry
   1. zirconate 1820–
      A salt containing oxyanions of zirconium; esp. a salt of the anion ZrO3 ²⁻. Chiefly as a formative element in chemical names.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzəːkəneɪt/
ZUR-kuh-nayt

### U.S. English

/ˈzərkəˌneɪt/
ZURR-kuh-nayt

####

##### 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

zirconate typically occurs about 0.04 times per million words in modern written English.

zirconate is in frequency band 3, which contains words occurring between 0.01 and 0.1 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 zirconate, n., 1860–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1860 | 0.0034
1870 | 0.0039
1880 | 0.0043
1890 | 0.0057
1900 | 0.0074
1910 | 0.0087
1920 | 0.01
1930 | 0.016
1940 | 0.021
1950 | 0.025
1960 | 0.029
1970 | 0.033
1980 | 0.038
1990 | 0.041
2000 | 0.04
2010 | 0.041

### Frequency of zirconate, 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 | 0.029
2018 | 0.022
2019 | 0.019
2020 | 0.0022
2021 | 0.0032
2022 | 0.0028
2023 | 0.0028
2024 | 0.0026

zirconate, n. was revised in March 2021.

zirconate, n. was last modified in July 2023.