Zipf, n.

zipf
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zipf_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2021

# Zipfnoun

## Earlier version

- Zipf in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun Zipf mean?

There are two meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun Zipf. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

### How is the noun Zipf pronounced?

#### British English

/zɪpf/
zipf

#### U.S. English

/zɪpf/
zipf

### Where does the noun Zipf come from?

Earliest known use

1930s

The earliest known use of the noun Zipf is in the 1930s.

OED's earliest evidence for Zipf is from 1936, in the writing of B. F. Skinner.

From a proper name.

Etymons: proper name Zipf.

### Nearby entries

1. zip, v.² 1964–
2. zip, int. & n.¹ 1678–
3. zip-a-dee-doo-dah, int. & adj. 1945–
4. zip code, n. 1962–
5. zip-code, v. 1962–
6. zip-coded, adj. 1963–
7. zip-coding, n. 1964–
8. zip coon, n. 1833–
9. zip cuff, n. 1995–
10. zip cuff, v. 1996–
11. Zipf, n.1936–
12. zip fastener, n. 1925–
13. zip fastening, n. & adj. 1925–
14. zip gun, n. 1914–
15. Ziph, n. 1834–
16. ziphian, n. & adj. 1896
17. ziphiiform, adj. 1891
18. ziphioid, adj. & n. 1861–
19. zipless, adj. 1922–
20. zip line, n. 1970–
21. zip line, v. 1998–

## Etymology

### Summary

From a proper name.
Etymon: proper name Zipf.
< the name of George Kingsley Zipf (1902–50), U.S. linguist.

## Meaning & use

1. 1.
   1936–
   Zipf's law noun
   Any of several principles proposed or popularized by George Zipf, or based on his work, spec.: (a) the observation that the length of words or expressions is generally in inverse relationship to their frequency of occurrence, more frequently used words being typically shorter; (b) (also Zipf law) a statistical model according to which, in a collection of linguistic utterances, the frequency of a word is (approximately) inversely proportional to its rank in the frequency table (the second most common word being half as frequent as the most common, the third most common being a third as frequent, and so on); (also) a generalized application of this model to rank versus frequency distribution in other contexts.
   1. 1936

      > The application of Zipf's law to verbal behavior is considerably restricted.

      B. F. Skinner in Journal of Psychology vol. 2 85
   2. 1967

      > He [sc. Zipf] came to the conclusion that the length of a word tends to decrease as its relative frequency of use increases... The formula..has come to be known as ‘Zipf's Law’, often quoted if also sometimes questioned.

      M. Schlauch, Language vii. 143
   3. 1971

      > Zipf's law predicts an inverse ratio in the rank order distribution of varieties such that a minimal number of varieties covers a maximal number of responses and a maximal number of varieties covers a minimal number of responses.

      Journal of General Psychology October 297
   4. 2003

      > Zipf's law says that..cities generally seem to obey a curious mathematical law with respect to their sizes: a country's largest city is approximately twice as large as the second-largest city, three times as big as the third city..[etc.]. The Russian cities deviate from Zipf's law in a way not seen for any other country.

      F. Hill & C. Gaddy, Siberian Curse ii. 19
   5. 2016

      > A ‘Zipf's law’ is a power law with an exponent of 1.

      Journal Econ. Perspectives vol. 30 187
   linguistics
   1. Schallanalyse 1930–
      (See quot. 1931.)
   2. Zipf's law 1936–
      Any of several principles proposed or popularized by George Zipf, or based on his work, spec.: (a) the observation that the length of words or…
   View in Historical Thesaurus
2. 2.
   1953–
   As a modifier. Designating statistical concepts based on versions or applications of Zipf's law, as in Zipf curve, Zipf distribution, Zipf relation, etc.
   1. 1953

      > A description of the peculiarities of the distribution of towns by size, 1951, with discussion of economic factors and applications of the Zipf analysis.

      Population Index vol. 19 275/1
   2. 1961

      > There are theoretical reasons..for regarding the Zipf distribution as an approximation to a more general distribution which Simon has christened the Yule distribution.

      Journal Royal Statistical Society. A. vol. 124 6
   3. 1995

      > The Zipf curve, as refined by B. Mandelbrot, indicates that the relationship between size and frequency is a constant.

      Computers & Humanities vol. 29 328/2
   4. 1995

      > The researchers..grouped pairs of nucleotides to create words between three and eight base pairs long... In every case, they found that noncoding regions followed the Zipf relation more closely than did coding regions.

      Scientific American March 12/3
   5. 2005

      > To put it crudely, there are a small number of words that appear very frequently: the, of, to, and, a, in, etc. After that, there is a steep decline, followed by tens of thousands of words that appear relatively rarely: palimpsest, lapidary, rodomontade, epalpebrate, and so on. When you graph what is now often called the Zipf distribution, these rare words form the long tail that tapers off to the right.

      Guardian 24 March (Life section) 24/2
   statistics

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zɪpf/
zipf

### U.S. English

/zɪpf/
zipf

####

##### 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

Zipf, n. was revised in March 2021.

Zipf, n. was last modified in December 2024.