zebra finch, n.

zebra-finch
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zebra-finch_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2018

# zebra finchnoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zebra finch mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun zebra finch. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.

### How common is the noun zebra finch?

About 0.06occurrences per million words in modern written English

1870 | 0.0001
1880 | 0.0001
1890 | 0.0002
1900 | 0.0003
1910 | 0.0007
1920 | 0.0012
1930 | 0.0025
1940 | 0.0066
1950 | 0.017
1960 | 0.027
1970 | 0.039
1980 | 0.052
1990 | 0.06
2000 | 0.07
2010 | 0.081

### How is the noun zebra finch pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzɛbrə fɪn(t)ʃ/
ZEB-ruh finch
/ˈziːbrə fɪn(t)ʃ/
ZEE-bruh finch

#### U.S. English

/ˈzibrə ˌfɪntʃ/
ZEE-bruh finch

### Where does the noun zebra finch come from?

Earliest known use

1860s

The earliest known use of the noun zebra finch is in the 1860s.

OED's earliest evidence for zebra finch is from 1868, in Express (London).

zebra finch is formed within English, by compounding.

Etymons: zebra n., finch n.

### Nearby entries

1. zearalanol, n. 1966–
2. zearalenone, n. 1966–
3. zeatin, n. 1963–
4. zeaxanthin, n. 1929–
5. Zebedist, n. 1574
6. zebra, n. 1597–
7. zebra caterpillar, n. 1841–
8. zebra crossing, n. 1934–
9. zebra danio, n. 1917–
10. zebraed, adj. 1806–
11. zebra finch, n.1868–
12. zebrafish, n. 1771–
13. zebraic, adj. 1858–
14. zebra marking, n. 1854–
15. zebra moray, n. 1933–
16. zebra mule, n. 1841–
17. zebra mussel, n. 1866–
18. zebrano, n. 1908–
19. zebra opossum, n. 1808–
20. zebra parakeet, n. 1856–
21. zebra plant, n. 1826–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by compounding.
< zebra n. + finch n.

## Meaning & use

1. 1868–
   A small Australasian waxbill with black and white stripes on the face, Taeniopygia guttata (family Estrildidae), popular as a cage bird.
   Formerly known as Poephila guttata, and sometimes split into two species.
   1. 1868

      > Mr. Underdown, of Adelaide, the exporter of Australian birds to Europe, has now in stock..7,000 pairs of zebra finches.

      Express (London) 24 February 2/3
   2. 1899

      > The Diamond Sparrow, also an Australian, but inhabiting further south than the Zebra Finch.

      W. T. Greene, Cage-birds 59
   3. 1936

      > Flocks of the most typical bird of Central Australia, the pretty little zebra finch, with its husky chirp.

      C. T. Madigan, Central Australia 103
   4. 1963

      > The frequent presence of both adults in the nest by day..has been reported of wild Zebra Finches.

      Behaviour vol. 20 170
   5. 2012

      > As a mature adult, a zebra finch sings essentially the same song every time.

      S. Seung, Connectome xi. 190
   birds
   1. firefinch 1783–
      Any of various African waxbills of the genus Lagonosticta and related genera (family Estrildidae), the males of which have predominantly red plumage.
   2. cutthroat 1790–
      A finch native to sub-Saharan Africa and popular as a cage bird, Amadina fasciata (family Estrildidae), having pale brown plumage with black…
   3. cutthroat sparrow 1790–
      The cutthroat finch, Amadina fasciata, the male of which has a bright red band across the cheeks and throat. Cf. cutthroat, n.² 1, cutthroat finch n.
   4. redhead 1816–
      Any of various other birds with a red or reddish head, or red markings on the head; esp. (a) British regional the pochard, Aythya ferina; (b) Nort…
   5. firetail 1845–
      Any of several Australasian waxbills of the genus Stagonopleura and related genera, having predominantly grey plumage with red upper tail coverts…
   6. fire-tailed finch 1845–
      = firetail, n. A.2.
   7. cutthroat finch 1859–
      A finch native to sub-Saharan Africa and popular as a cage bird, Amadina fasciata (family Estrildidae), having pale brown plumage with black…
   8. zebra finch 1868–
      A small Australasian waxbill with black and white stripes on the face, Taeniopygia guttata (family Estrildidae), popular as a cage bird.
   9. magpie finch 1869–
      An African mannikin of the genus Lonchura, esp. the bronze mannikin, L. cucullata.
   10. melba finch 1876–
       A small West African songbird, Pytilia melba (family Estrildidae), the male of which has a bright red face and tail, and a yellow breast. Also called…
   11. zebra 1879–
       The zebra finch, Taeniopygia guttata.
   12. bluebill 1955–
       Any of several waxbills constituting the genus Spermophaga (family Estrildidae), which are native to sub-Saharan Africa and have thick bluish bills…
   13. blue-breast 2004–
       a. The bluethroat, Luscinia svecica (now rare); b. the blue-breasted cordon-bleu, Uraeginthus angolensis (family Estrildidae), a waxbill with a pale…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzɛbrə fɪn(t)ʃ/
ZEB-ruh finch
/ˈziːbrə fɪn(t)ʃ/
ZEE-bruh finch

### U.S. English

/ˈzibrə ˌfɪntʃ/
ZEE-bruh finch

####

##### 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

zebra finch typically occurs about 0.06 times per million words in modern written English.

zebra finch is in frequency band 3, which contains words occurring between 0.01 and 0.1 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 zebra finch, n., 1870–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1870 | 0.0001
1880 | 0.0001
1890 | 0.0002
1900 | 0.0003
1910 | 0.0007
1920 | 0.0012
1930 | 0.0025
1940 | 0.0066
1950 | 0.017
1960 | 0.027
1970 | 0.039
1980 | 0.052
1990 | 0.06
2000 | 0.07
2010 | 0.081

### Frequency of zebra finch, 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 | 0.022
2018 | 0.023
2019 | 0.027
2020 | 0.029
2021 | 0.028
2022 | 0.028
2023 | 0.028
2024 | 0.023

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

zebra finch, n. was revised in June 2018.

zebra finch, n. was last modified in September 2024.