zona pellucida, n.

zona-pellucida
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zona-pellucida_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 1921; not fully revised

# zona pellucidanoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zona pellucida mean?

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

About 0.2occurrences per million words in modern written English

1840 | 0.058
1850 | 0.068
1860 | 0.073
1870 | 0.084
1880 | 0.084
1890 | 0.091
1900 | 0.079
1910 | 0.07
1920 | 0.064
1930 | 0.06
1940 | 0.064
1950 | 0.09
1960 | 0.13
1970 | 0.16
1980 | 0.18
1990 | 0.19
2000 | 0.2
2010 | 0.19

### Where does the noun zona pellucida come from?

Earliest known use

1840s

The earliest known use of the noun zona pellucida is in the 1840s.

OED's only evidence for zona pellucida is from 1841, in the writing of M. Barry.

### Nearby entries

1. zomboid, adj. 1963–
2. zom-com, n. 2004–
3. zomotherapeutic, adj. 1900–
4. zomotherapy, n. 1900–
5. zona, n. 1706–
6. zona ignea, n. 1818–
7. zonal, adj. 1867–
8. zonality, n. 1909–
9. zonally, adv. 1873–
10. zonal marking, n. 1958–
11. zona pellucida, n.1841–
12. zona radiata, n. 1881–
13. zona reticularis, n. 1874–
14. zonarious, adj. 1656–
15. zonary, adj. 1881–
16. zonate, adj. 1866–
17. zonated, adj. 1803–
18. zonation, n. 1898–
19. zone, n. a1500–
20. zone, v. 1792–
21. zone centre | zone center, n. 1934–

## Meaning & use

1. 1841–
   The transparent membrane forming the cell-wall of the ovum in Mammalia.
   1. 1841

      > We saw the incipient chorion, when rising from the ‘zona pellucida’ in the mammiferous ovum, to leave a stratum of unappropriated cells behind it on the ‘zona’.

      M. Barry in Philosophical Transactions (Royal Society) vol. 132 116
   physiology
   1. zona pellucida 1841–
      The transparent membrane forming the cell-wall of the ovum in Mammalia.
   2. zona radiata 1881–
      A radially striated form of the zona pellucida surrounding the ova of certain vertebrates as seen in the light microscope.
   3. pellucid zone 1890–
      = zona pellucida, n.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Frequency

zona pellucida typically occurs about 0.2 times per million words in modern written English.

zona pellucida 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 zona pellucida, n., 1840–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1840 | 0.058
1850 | 0.068
1860 | 0.073
1870 | 0.084
1880 | 0.084
1890 | 0.091
1900 | 0.079
1910 | 0.07
1920 | 0.064
1930 | 0.06
1940 | 0.064
1950 | 0.09
1960 | 0.13
1970 | 0.16
1980 | 0.18
1990 | 0.19
2000 | 0.2
2010 | 0.19

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

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