zooplankton, n.

zooplankton
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zooplankton_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zooplanktonnoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zooplankton mean?

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

### How common is the noun zooplankton?

About 1occurrence per million words in modern written English

1890 | 0.0034
1900 | 0.0041
1910 | 0.012
1920 | 0.07
1930 | 0.14
1940 | 0.23
1950 | 0.31
1960 | 0.6
1970 | 0.98
1980 | 1.2
1990 | 1.1
2000 | 0.9
2010 | 0.8

### How is the noun zooplankton pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzuː(ə)plaŋ(k)tən/
ZOO-uh-plank-tuhn
/ˌzuː(ə)ˈplaŋ(k)tən/
zoo-uh-PLANK-tuhn

#### U.S. English

/ˈzu(ə)ˌplæŋkt(ə)n/
ZOO-uh-plank-tuhn
/ˌzu(ə)ˈplæŋkt(ə)n/
zoo-uh-PLANK-tuhn

### Where does the noun zooplankton come from?

Earliest known use

1890s

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

OED's earliest evidence for zooplankton is from 1897, in Science.

zooplankton is formed within English, by compounding.

Etymons: zoo- comb. form, plankton n.

### Nearby entries

1. zoophytist, n. 1814–62
2. zoophytography, n. 1735–1905
3. zoophytoid, adj. 1854–83
4. zoophytological, adj. 1823–
5. zoophytologist, n. 1835–
6. zoophytology, n. 1815–
7. zoophyton, n. 1601–
8. zooplankter, n. 1935–
9. zooplanktivore, n. 1972–
10. zooplanktivorous, adj. 1971–
11. zooplankton, n.1897–
12. zooplanktonic, adj. 1912–
13. zooplastic, adj. a1855–
14. zoopraxinoscope, n. 1889–
15. zoopraxiscope, n. 1881–
16. zoopraxography, n. 1891–
17. zoopsychology, n. 1847–
18. zooscopic, adj. 1817–
19. zooscopy, n. 1891–
20. zoosematic, adj. 1898–1909
21. zoosemiotics, n. 1963–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by compounding.
Etymons: zoo- comb. form, plankton n.
< zoo- comb. form + plankton n.

Compare German Zooplankton (1894 or earlier).

## Meaning & use

Biology.

1. 1897–
   With singular or plural agreement. Plankton consisting of small animals and the immature stages of larger animals. Cf. phytoplankton n.
   1. 1897

      > This uniformity..is due to the similarity of the chemical constituents in the water, resulting in a uniform growth of the phyto-plankton and the zooplankton depending upon it.

      Science 23 July 141/1
   2. 1901

      > Shallow pools of clear water which were rich in zooplankton.

      Lancet 3 December 1801/1
   3. 1935

      > The Rotifera constitute one of the most conspicuous and important groups of the zooplankton.

      P. S. Welch, Limnology ix. 206
   4. 1997

      > Many fishes..hover in the water column along the face of a coral reef and feed on zooplankton.

      G. S. Helfman et al., Diversity of Fishes xxiii. 415/1
   5. 2006

      > The scientists found a diverse array of rare zooplankton—microscopic animals near the bottom of the marine food chain.

      Independent 11 December 16/1
   life sciences
   1. brit 1838–
      Planktonic animals (chiefly minute crustaceans) upon which right whales feed, esp. as seen floating on the surface. Also more fully sea-brit. Now…
   2. limnoplankton 1893–
      Plankton found in fresh water.
   3. zooplankton 1897–
      With singular or plural agreement. Plankton consisting of small animals and the immature stages of larger animals. Cf. phytoplankton, n.
   4. meroplankton 1899–
      Aquatic organisms that spend only part of their life cycle as plankton; meroplanktonic organisms collectively.
   5. potamoplankton 1899–
      Plankton found in rivers or streams.
   6. pseudoplankton 1899–
      With singular or plural agreement. Marine organisms which live among or are attached to drifting or floating objects.
   7. cryoplankton 1902–
      Small and microscopic organisms (esp. algae) that inhabit snow and ice; cf. cryophyte, n.
   8. hypoplankton 1902–
      Plankton found in the layer of water directly above the bottom of the ocean.
   9. microplankton 1903–
      Microscopic or very small plankton.
   10. haloplankton 1909–
       Marine plankton.
   11. holoplankton 1909–
       A collective term for aquatic organisms that are holoplanktonic.
   12. meroplankton 1909–
       Planktonic organisms of the neritic zone. rare.
   13. nanoplankton 1912–
       Very small unicellular plankton, at the limits of resolution of light microscopy.
   14. neuston 1928–
       The minute organisms inhabiting the surface layer of water or moving on the surface film, considered collectively.
   15. aeroplankton 1932–
       = aerial plankton, n.
   16. staph 1933–
       = staphylococcus, n., a genus of pathogenic bacteria.
   17. aerial plankton 1937–
       (A collective term for) those forms of organic life found drifting in the atmosphere, comprising minute insects, spiders, and mites, bacteria and…
   18. astroplankton 1954–
       Hypothetical living material such as microorganisms or spores present in space, postulated as able to initiate or spread life on reaching a…
   19. picoplankton 1978–
       Plankton consisting of organisms between 0.2 and 2.0 microns in diameter, or having a wet weight of the order of 10⁻¹² g.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzuː(ə)plaŋ(k)tən/
ZOO-uh-plank-tuhn
/ˌzuː(ə)ˈplaŋ(k)tən/
zoo-uh-PLANK-tuhn
/ˈzəʊəplaŋ(k)tən/
ZOH-uh-plank-tuhn
/ˌzəʊəˈplaŋ(k)tən/
zoh-uh-PLANK-tuhn

### U.S. English

/ˈzu(ə)ˌplæŋkt(ə)n/
ZOO-uh-plank-tuhn
/ˌzu(ə)ˈplæŋkt(ə)n/
zoo-uh-PLANK-tuhn
/ˈzoʊəˌplæŋkt(ə)n/
ZOH-uh-plank-tuhn
/ˌzoʊəˈplæŋkt(ə)n/
zoh-uh-PLANK-tuhn

####

##### 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

See zoo- comb. form and plankton n.

## Frequency

zooplankton typically occurs about once per million words in modern written English.

zooplankton is in frequency band 5, which contains words occurring between 1 and 10 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 zooplankton, 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 | 0.0034
1900 | 0.0041
1910 | 0.012
1920 | 0.07
1930 | 0.14
1940 | 0.23
1950 | 0.31
1960 | 0.6
1970 | 0.98
1980 | 1.2
1990 | 1.1
2000 | 0.9
2010 | 0.8

### Frequency of zooplankton, 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 | 0.1
2018 | 0.1
2019 | 0.11
2020 | 0.11
2021 | 0.13
2022 | 0.13
2023 | 0.14
2024 | 0.14

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. microzooplankton, n. 1964–
   Very small zooplankton, spec. within the size…

Originally published as part of the entry for zoo-, comb. form

zooplankton, n. was revised in June 2017.

zooplankton, n. was last modified in July 2023.