zoophytic, adj.

zoophytic
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zoophytic_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zoophyticadjective

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zoophytic mean?

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

### How common is the adjective zoophytic?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1800 | 0.03
1810 | 0.03
1820 | 0.033
1830 | 0.031
1840 | 0.033
1850 | 0.029
1860 | 0.026
1870 | 0.019
1880 | 0.014
1890 | 0.0082
1900 | 0.0055
1910 | 0.003
1920 | 0.002
1930 | 0.0013
1940 | 0.0007
1950 | 0.0006
1960 | 0.0005
1970 | 0.0004
1980 | 0.0004
1990 | 0.0004
2000 | 0.0004
2010 | 0.0004

### How is the adjective zoophytic pronounced?

#### British English

/ˌzuː(ə)ˈfɪtɪk/
zoo-uh-FIT-ik
/ˌzəʊəˈfɪtɪk/
zoh-uh-FIT-ik

#### U.S. English

/ˌzu(ə)ˈfɪdɪk/
zoo-uh-FID-ik
/ˌzoʊəˈfɪdɪk/
zoh-uh-FID-ik

### Where does the adjective zoophytic come from?

Earliest known use

1800s

The earliest known use of the adjective zoophytic is in the 1800s.

OED's earliest evidence for zoophytic is from 1808, in London Med. Review.

zoophytic is formed within English, by derivation.

Etymons: zoophyte n., ‑ic suffix.

### Nearby entries

1. zoophilist, n. 1829–
2. zoophilite, n. 1879–
3. zoophilous, adj. 1881–
4. zoophily, n. 1830–
5. zoophobia, n. 1888–
6. zoophysical, adj. 1820–
7. zoophysics, n. 1887–
8. zoophysiology, n. 1803–
9. zoophytal, adj. 1756–
10. zoophyte, n. 1606–
11. zoophytic, adj.1808–
12. zoophytical, adj. 1779–
13. zoophytish, adj. 1854–80
14. zoophytist, n. 1814–62
15. zoophytography, n. 1735–1905
16. zoophytoid, adj. 1854–83
17. zoophytological, adj. 1823–
18. zoophytologist, n. 1835–
19. zoophytology, n. 1815–
20. zoophyton, n. 1601–
21. zooplankter, n. 1935–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by derivation.
< zoophyte n. + ‑ic suffix.

## Meaning & use

Biology.

1. 1808–
   Of or relating to a zoophyte or zoophytes. Also: produced by zoophytes.
   1. 1808

      > Every genus and species of the zoophytic order..can only be included .

      London Med. Review October 369
   2. 1818

      > Molluscous and zoophytic animals.

      Journal Science & Arts vol. 5 375
   3. 1855

      > About Aldborough and Orford the crag assumes a totally different character, becoming..a zoophytic limestone.

      J. Phillips, Manual of Geology xiii. 402
   4. 1908

      > Cells began to unite in groups, and some of these groups took the form of a double-walled sack, our zoöphytic ancestor.

      J. M. Tyler, Man in Light of Evolution iv. 63
   5. 1993

      > The street markets specialising in anything from antique furniture to zoophytic plants have their own distinctive character and entertainment value.

      Evening Standard (Nexis) 1 February 24
   6. 2000

      > This shrimp lives on a zoophytic calcareous substrate.

      NAFO Sci. Council Studies vol. 33 1
   invertebrates
   1. plant-living 1594
      That has characteristics of both an animal and a plant; = zoophytic, adj.
   2. zoophytal 1756–
      Of or relating to a zoophyte or zoophytes; (also) produced by zoophytes.
   3. zoophytical 1779–
      Characteristic of or resembling a zoophyte; relating to zoophytes.
   4. zoophytic 1808–
      Of or relating to a zoophyte or zoophytes. Also: produced by zoophytes.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˌzuː(ə)ˈfɪtɪk/
zoo-uh-FIT-ik
/ˌzəʊəˈfɪtɪk/
zoh-uh-FIT-ik

### U.S. English

/ˌzu(ə)ˈfɪdɪk/
zoo-uh-FID-ik
/ˌzoʊəˈfɪdɪk/
zoh-uh-FID-ik

####

##### 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

1. 1800s–
   zoophytic
2. 1900s
   zoöphytic

## Frequency

zoophytic typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.

zoophytic is in frequency band 1, which contains words occurring fewer than 0.001 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 zoophytic, adj., 1800–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1800 | 0.03
1810 | 0.03
1820 | 0.033
1830 | 0.031
1840 | 0.033
1850 | 0.029
1860 | 0.026
1870 | 0.019
1880 | 0.014
1890 | 0.0082
1900 | 0.0055
1910 | 0.003
1920 | 0.002
1930 | 0.0013
1940 | 0.0007
1950 | 0.0006
1960 | 0.0005
1970 | 0.0004
1980 | 0.0004
1990 | 0.0004
2000 | 0.0004
2010 | 0.0004

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

zoophytic, adj. was revised in June 2017.

zoophytic, adj. was last modified in July 2023.