zonic, adj.

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

# zonicadjective

## Earlier version

- zonic, a. in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zonic mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the adjective zonic. 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 adjective zonic?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1790 | 0.0027
1800 | 0.0021
1810 | 0.0018
1820 | 0.0018
1830 | 0.0017
1840 | 0.0016
1850 | 0.0011
1860 | 0.0005
1870 | 0.0005
1880 | 0.0006
1890 | 0.0004
1900 | 0.0003
1910 | 0.0004
1920 | 0.0004
1930 | 0.0004
1940 | 0.0004
1950 | 0.0004
1960 | 0.0003
1970 | 0.0003
1980 | 0.0002
1990 | 0.0002
2000 | 0.0002
2010 | 0.0001

### How is the adjective zonic pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzəʊnɪk/

### Where does the adjective zonic come from?

Earliest known use

late 1700s

The earliest known use of the adjective zonic is in the late 1700s.

OED's only evidence for zonic is from 1797, in Monthly Magazine.

zonic is formed within English, by derivation.

Etymons: zone n., ‑ic suffix.

### Nearby entries

1. zone-melt, v. 1982–
2. zone melting, n. 1952–
3. zone plate, n. 1890–
4. zoner, n. 1962–
5. zone-refine, v. 1962–
6. zone refiner, n. 1959–
7. zone refining, n. 1952–
8. zone therapy, n. 1915–
9. zone time, n. 1908–
10. Zonian, n. 1910–
11. zonic, adj.1797–
12. zoning, n. a1821–
13. zonite, n. 1860–
14. zonitic, adj. 1888–
15. zonk, v. 1950–
16. zonk, int. 1949–
17. zonked, adj. 1959–
18. zonkey, n. 1953–
19. zonking, adj. 1958–
20. zonky, adj. 1972–
21. zono-, comb. form

## Etymology

### Summary

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

## Meaning & use

rare.

1. 1797–
   Belonging to a particular zone or region.
   1. 1797

      > The zonic gods are those which revolve round the celestial zones.

      Monthly Magazine vol. 3 511
   1. climatical 1580–1800
      Of or relating to the climates (climate, n.¹ 1a) or parallels of latitude. Obsolete. rare.
   2. co-climatary 1652
      Of the same ‘climate’ or region.
   3. zonic 1797–
      Belonging to a particular zone or region.
   4. zonal 1882–
      Pertaining or relating to, involving, or constituting a ‘zone’ or ‘zones’, i.e. regions or areas distinctively characterized in some way: see zone, n.…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzəʊnɪk/

####

##### 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.

## Frequency

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

zonic 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 zonic, adj., 1790–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1790 | 0.0027
1800 | 0.0021
1810 | 0.0018
1820 | 0.0018
1830 | 0.0017
1840 | 0.0016
1850 | 0.0011
1860 | 0.0005
1870 | 0.0005
1880 | 0.0006
1890 | 0.0004
1900 | 0.0003
1910 | 0.0004
1920 | 0.0004
1930 | 0.0004
1940 | 0.0004
1950 | 0.0004
1960 | 0.0003
1970 | 0.0003
1980 | 0.0002
1990 | 0.0002
2000 | 0.0002
2010 | 0.0001

zonic, adj. was first published in 1921; not fully revised.

zonic, adj. was last modified in December 2024.