zygote, n.

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

# zygotenoun

## Earlier version

- zygote in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zygote mean?

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

About 0.9occurrences per million words in modern written English

1890 | 0.42
1900 | 0.51
1910 | 0.61
1920 | 0.73
1930 | 0.87
1940 | 0.95
1950 | 1.0
1960 | 1.0
1970 | 1.0
1980 | 0.97
1990 | 0.88
2000 | 0.82
2010 | 0.78

### How is the noun zygote pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzʌɪɡəʊt/
ZIGH-goht

#### U.S. English

/ˈzaɪˌɡoʊt/
ZIGH-goht

### Where does the noun zygote come from?

Earliest known use

1890s

The earliest known use of the noun zygote is in the 1890s.

OED's earliest evidence for zygote is from 1891, in the writing of M. Hartog.

zygote is a borrowing from Greek.

Etymons: Greek ζυγωτός.

### Nearby entries

1. zygosperm, n. 1880–
2. zygosphenal, adj. 1854–
3. zygosphene, n. 1854–
4. zygosphere, n. 1880–
5. zygospondyline, adj. 1892–
6. zygospore, n. 1864–
7. zygosporic, adj. 1906–
8. zygostat, n. 1623
9. zygostatical, adj. 1656
10. zygostyle, n. 1881–
11. zygote, n.1891–
12. zygotene, n. 1911–
13. zygotic, adj. 1909–
14. -zygotic, comb. form
15. zygotically, adv. 1915–
16. zygotoblast, n. 1899–
17. zygotoid, n. 1891–
18. zygotomere, n. 1899–
19. -zygous, comb. form
20. zygozoospore, n. 1881–
21. Zyklon, n. 1939–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Greek.
Etymon: Greek ζυγωτός.
< Greek ζυγωτός yoked, < ζυγοῦν to yoke.

## Meaning & use

Biology.

1. 1891–
   A body of living protoplasm, as a cell or cell-nucleus, formed by the conjugation or fusion of two such bodies in reproduction; a zygospore, or any germ-cell resulting from the union of two reproductive cells or gametes. Also attributive or as adj. That is a zygote, formed by conjugation; of or pertaining to a zygote.
   1. 1891

      > Paragamy or Endokaryogamy: vegetative or gametal nuclei lying in a continuous mass of cytoplasm fuse to form a zygote nucleus.

      M. Hartog in Nature 17 September 484
   2. 1895

      > The cell produced by the fusion of the bodies of two gametes is called the zygote.

      F. W. Oliver et al., translation of A. Kerner von Marilaun, Natural History of Plants vol. II. 628
   cell biology physiology
   1. zygote 1891–
      A body of living protoplasm, as a cell or cell-nucleus, formed by the conjugation or fusion of two such bodies in reproduction; a zygospore, or any…
   2. zygotoid 1891–
      A multinucleate form of zygote in certain fungi (see quot.).
   3. syngamete a1900–
      The cell produced by the fusion of two gametes in reproduction.
   4. ookinete 1902–
      A zygote capable of autonomous movement, esp. as a stage in the life cycle of some parasitic protozoa.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzʌɪɡəʊt/
ZIGH-goht

### U.S. English

/ˈzaɪˌɡoʊt/
ZIGH-goht

####

##### 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

zygote typically occurs about 0.9 times per million words in modern written English.

zygote 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 zygote, n., 1890–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1890 | 0.42
1900 | 0.51
1910 | 0.61
1920 | 0.73
1930 | 0.87
1940 | 0.95
1950 | 1.0
1960 | 1.0
1970 | 1.0
1980 | 0.97
1990 | 0.88
2000 | 0.82
2010 | 0.78

### Frequency of zygote, 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 | 0.048
2018 | 0.046
2019 | 0.053
2020 | 0.064
2021 | 0.072
2022 | 0.081
2023 | 0.091
2024 | 0.095

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. zygotoid, n. 1891–
   A multinucleate form of zygote in certain fungi…

1. zygotoblast, n. 1899–
   One of a number of germ-cells or sporozoites…

1. zygotomere, n. 1899–
   One of a number of cells formed by segmentation…

1. heterozygote, n. 1902–
   A diploid individual that has different alleles…

1. homozygote, n. 1902–
   A diploid individual that has identical alleles…

1. zygotic, adj. 1909–
   Pertaining to or of the nature of a zygote…

1. zygotically, adv. 1915–
   In the zygote; in terms of the zygote.

1. monozygote, n. & adj. 1929–
   A monozygotic twin (or triplet, etc.); =…

1. dizygotic, adj. 1930–
   Of twins: derived from two separate ova (and…

1. parthenote, n. 1931–
   An organism produced from an unfertilized egg by…

1. merozygote, n. 1956–
   A merodiploid microorganism.

1. -zygotic, comb. form
   = -zygous, comb. form affix 2.

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

zygote, n. was last modified in July 2023.