zone levelling, n.

zone-levelling
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zone-levelling_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 1986; not fully revised

# zone levellingnoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zone levelling mean?

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

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1950 | 0.0011
1960 | 0.0009
1970 | 0.0008
1980 | 0.0008
1990 | 0.0008
2000 | 0.0005
2010 | 0.0005

### Where does the noun zone levelling come from?

Earliest known use

1950s

The earliest known use of the noun zone levelling is in the 1950s.

OED's earliest evidence for zone levelling is from 1953, in a paper by W. G. Pfann.

### Nearby entries

1. zone, v. 1792–
2. zone centre | zone center, n. 1934–
3. zoned, adj. 1662–
4. zone defence | zone defense, n. 1927–
5. zone electrophoresis, n. 1952–
6. zone fossil, n. 1904–
7. zoneless, adj. 1748–
8. zonelet, n. 1855–
9. zone level, v. 1974–
10. zone leveller, n. 1956–
11. zone levelling, n.1953–
12. zone-melt, v. 1982–
13. zone melting, n. 1952–
14. zone plate, n. 1890–
15. zoner, n. 1962–
16. zone-refine, v. 1962–
17. zone refiner, n. 1959–
18. zone refining, n. 1952–
19. zone therapy, n. 1915–
20. zone time, n. 1908–
21. Zonian, n. 1910–

## Meaning & use

1. 1953–
   A process similar to zone refining in which the molten zone is passed repeatedly to and fro to produce a more homogeneous material.
   1. 1953

      > The discussion of zone-melting has been confined to the categories of zone-leveling and zone-refining.

      W. G. Pfann in Transactions Amer. Inst. Mining & Metall. Engineers vol. CXCIV. 752/1
   2. 1978

      > A modification of the technique, zone levelling, is used to introduce controlled amounts of impurity (for example, indium into germanium).

      P. W. Atkins, Physical Chemistry x. 301
   metal industry
   1. calcination c1386–
      The action or process of calcining; reduction by fire to a ‘calx’, powder, or friable substance; the subjecting of any infusible substance to a…
   2. calcining c1386–
      The process of reducing to a calx, burning to ashes, or subjecting to a roasting heat.
   3. liquation 1471–
      Metallurgy. The action or process of separating metals by fusion.
   4. fulmination 1617–1730
      Metallurgy. The sudden production of a bright appearance in a metal during refining. Cf. fulguration, n. 2. Obsolete.
   5. cupelling 1644–
      = cupellation, n.
   6. decrepitating 1662–
   7. decrepitation 1669–
      The action of decrepitate, v.: (a) the calcining of a salt or mineral until it ceases to crackle with the heat; (b) the crackling and…
   8. fulguration 1676–
      Metallurgy. Iridescence or brightness shown by a metal during refining, esp. that of silver during cupellation, when only a thin film of lead oxide…
   9. concentration 1689–
      The extraction or separation of gold, silver, or other metal present in an alloy, solution, etc. Now rare.
   10. cupellation a1691–
       The process of assaying or refining the precious metals in a cupel; the separation of silver from argentiferous lead, on a large scale, on a cupel.
   11. scorification 1755–
       The process of reducing to scoria; formation of scoria or slag; spec. as a method of refining or assay.
   12. affination 1851–
       Metallurgy. The process of refining (precious) metal, esp. by treatment with hot concentrated sulfuric acid.
   13. electrorefining 1890–
       The refining of metal by an electrochemical process, typically by means of an electrolytic cell in which the impure metal forms the anode or is…
   14. thermite process 1905–
       The reduction of finely divided oxides of iron or other metals by means of an exothermic reaction with finely divided aluminium; also, thermite…
   15. zone melting 1952–
       = zone refining, n.
   16. zone refining 1952–
       A method of refining used to produce semiconductors and metals of very high purity by causing narrow zones of molten material to travel slowly…
   17. zone levelling 1953–
       A process similar to zone refining in which the molten zone is passed repeatedly to and fro to produce a more homogeneous material.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Frequency

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

zone levelling 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 zone levelling, n., 1950–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1950 | 0.0011
1960 | 0.0009
1970 | 0.0008
1980 | 0.0008
1990 | 0.0008
2000 | 0.0005
2010 | 0.0005

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

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