zygoma, n.

zygoma
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zygoma_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 1921; not fully revised

# zygomanoun

## Earlier version

- zygoma in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zygoma mean?

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

About 0.1occurrences per million words in modern written English

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

### How is the noun zygoma pronounced?

#### British English

/zʌɪˈɡəʊmə/
zigh-GOH-muh
/zᵻˈɡəʊmə/
zuh-GOH-muh

#### U.S. English

/zaɪˈɡoʊmə/
zigh-GOH-muh

### Where does the noun zygoma come from?

Earliest known use

late 1600s

The earliest known use of the noun zygoma is in the late 1600s.

OED's earliest evidence for zygoma is from 1684, in S. Blankaart's Physical Dictionary.

zygoma is a borrowing from Latin.

### Nearby entries

1. zygo-, comb. form
2. zygobranchiate, adj. 1883–
3. zygocactus, n. 1950–
4. zygocardiac, adj. 1877–
5. zygodactyl, adj. & n. 1831–
6. zygodactylic, adj. 1835–
7. zygodactylous, adj. 1828–
8. zygodont, adj. 1888–
9. zygogenesis, n. 1950–
10. zygology, n. 1970–
11. zygoma, n.1684–
12. zygomatic, adj. & n. 1712–
13. zygomatico-, comb. form
14. zygomato-, comb. form
15. zygomere, n. 1966–
16. zygomorphic, adj. 1875–
17. zygomorphism, n. 1875–
18. zygomorphous, adj. 1879–
19. Zygomycetes, n. 1887–
20. zygomycetous, adj. 1928–
21. zygon, n. 1886–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Latin.
modern Latin, < Greek ζύγωμα, < ζυγόν yoke. Compare French zygome, †zigome.

## Meaning & use

Anatomy.

1. 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.
   1. 1684

      > Zygoma is the jugal Bone about the Temples.

      translation of S. Blankaart, Physical Dictionary 302
   2. 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
   3. 1804

      > The fracture ran horizontally, about a quarter of an inch above the zygoma.

      J. Abernethy, Surgical Observations 175
   4. 1825

      > The Temporal muscle is seen in the temples, and its tendon passing under the zygoma.

      A. Monro, Elements of Anatomy of Human Body vol. I. 379
   5. a1842

      > The zygoma, a process of the cheekbone, which joins the temporal bone.

      C. Bell, Anat. & Philos. Expression (ed. 3) (1844) iv. 109
   6. 1855

      > At the lower part of the squamous portion there is an outgrowth of bone, termed the ‘zygoma’.

      L. Holden, Human Osteology 57
   7. 1893

      > A ridge of bone, the supra-mastoid crest, runs immediately above the external auditory meatus, and is continued onwards to the zygoma.

      H. Morris, Treatise on Human Anatomy 37
   anatomy
   1. zygoma 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…
   2. zygomatic 1811–
      Short for zygomatic muscle n. at sense A or zygomatic bone n. at sense A
   3. zygomatic arch 1825–
      Pertaining to or forming part of the zygoma; jugal.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zʌɪˈɡəʊmə/
zigh-GOH-muh
/zᵻˈɡəʊmə/
zuh-GOH-muh

### U.S. English

/zaɪˈɡoʊmə/
zigh-GOH-muh

####

##### 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

## 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.

zygoma, n. was last modified in July 2023.