Zen garden, n.

zen-garden
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zen-garden_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 2008

# Zen gardennoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun Zen garden mean?

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

### How common is the noun Zen garden?

About 0.02occurrences per million words in modern written English

1930 | 0.0022
1940 | 0.0033
1950 | 0.005
1960 | 0.0076
1970 | 0.013
1980 | 0.018
1990 | 0.021
2000 | 0.024
2010 | 0.028

### Where does the noun Zen garden come from?

Earliest known use

1930s

The earliest known use of the noun Zen garden is in the 1930s.

OED's earliest evidence for Zen garden is from 1937, in the writing of L. E. Kuck.

### Nearby entries

1. Zend-Avestic, adj. 1864–
2. Zendic, n. & adj. 1771–
3. Zendician, n. a1833–66
4. Zendicism, n. 1697–
5. Zendish, adj. & n. 1802–1921
6. Zendist, n. 1877–1907
7. zendo, n. 1914–
8. Zener, n.¹ 1934–
9. Zener, n.² 1949–
10. Zengakuren, n. 1950–
11. Zen garden, n.1937–
12. zenick, n. 1801–1900
13. zenitfer, n. 1596–
14. zenith, n. & adj. a1387–
15. zenithal, adj.?1731–
16. zenithal projection, n. 1877–
17. zenith-borne, adj. 1865–86
18. zenith distance, n. 1588–
19. zenith line, n. 1585–
20. zenith point, n. 1585–
21. zenith sector, n. 1775–

## Meaning & use

1. 1937–
   (Originally in Japan) an outdoor space in which natural materials (typically rocks and gravel or sand) are arranged in lines and patterns, creating a serene environment designed to assist meditation.
   1. 1937

      > There is another type of temple courtyard garden, not so austere as the sanded Zen garden and ordinarily much smaller.

      L. E. Kuck, One Hundred Kyoto Gardens Introduction 15
   2. 1960

      > The most celebrated Zen garden in Japan..dates from 1469 and consists solely of a courtyard of raked white sand in which are asymmetrically disposed fifteen stones, in groups of five, three, and two.

      H. Stewart, Net of Fireflies 167
   3. 2012

      > Some years ago I visited Ryoan-Ji, a Zen garden, in Kyoto.

      College Eng. vol. 74 339
   horticulture
   1. closed garden a1382–
      A walled garden.
   2. ground a1500–
      With a and plural. In plural. An enclosed portion of land of considerable extent surrounding or attached to a dwelling-house or other building…
   3. knot-garden 1519–
      See knot, n.¹ I.7.
   4. summer garden 1589–
      A garden containing plants that flourish in summer, such as seasonal herbs, flowers, etc.
   5. spring garden a1625–
      A garden in which jets of water are activated by a person treading on a concealed mechanism. Now historical and rare.
   6. water garden a1626–
      A garden in which water features prominently, or forms the principal medium in which plants are grown. Also (occasionally): a water-filled…
   7. walled garden a1631–
      A garden enclosed by a wall, usually a high brick wall. Also figurative.
   8. wilderness a1644–
      A piece of ground in a large garden or park, planted with trees, and laid out in an ornamental or fantastic style, often in the form of a maze or…
   9. window garden 1649–
      A collection of pots or boxes laid out on a windowsill for the cultivation of plants, typically for growing a decorative display of flowers.
   10. botanic garden 1662–
       = botanical garden, n.
   11. Hanging Gardens 1705
       Of a wood, garden, walk, etc.: situated on a steep slope, top of a wall, etc., so as to hang over or appear to do so.
   12. front garden 1715–
       A garden adjoining the front of a house or other building.
   13. winter garden 1736–
       Originally: a greenhouse or conservatory in which plants are kept flourishing in winter. Later: a large enclosed space ornamented with plants and…
   14. cottage garden 1765–
       (Originally) a garden adjoining a cottage; (later sometimes) spec. a (usually small) garden kept in an informal style, and typically stocked with…
   15. Vauxhall 1770–
       Used elliptically for Vauxhall Gardens, a popular pleasure resort from the 17th to the middle of the 19th century; a place of resort or amusement…
   16. English garden 1771–
       (Originally) an informal garden created so as to produce the effect of natural scenery, esp. one with undulating parkland, serpentine lakes, and…
   17. wall garden 1780–
       A garden surrounded by a wall, or a border planted beside a sheltering wall.
   18. chinampa 1787–
       An artificially created farm plot on the edge of a lake used for growing crops in Mesoamerican agriculture and subsequently in Mexico.
   19. moat garden 1826–
       A garden situated in a dried-up or drained moat.
   20. gardenesque 1832–
       Chiefly with the. A style of garden design introduced by John Loudon (1783–1843), which put emphasis on the formal or artistic (as opposed to…
   21. sunk garden 1835–
       A garden that lies below the general level of its surroundings, often as a feature within a larger garden or park; = sunken garden, n.
   22. beer garden 1838–
       An enclosed area of outdoor seating, typically ornamented with plants and trees, in which beer and other refreshments may be bought and consumed…
   23. roof garden 1844–
       An area, often one containing a collection of plants in large pots, on the (flat) roof of a house or other building, used esp. for relaxation…
   24. weedery 1847–
       (A humorous name for) a place, esp. a garden, which is full of or overgrown with weeds.
   25. sunken garden 1849–
       A garden that lies below the general level of its surroundings, often as a feature within a larger garden or park.
   26. wild garden 1852–
       A group of hardy plants, exotic or native, in an informal setting, designed to look as natural as possible.
   27. rootery 1855–
       An ornamental arrangement of tree roots with soil between them into which garden plants are set. Cf. rockery, n.
   28. Japanese garden 1863–
       A garden in which clipped shrubs, water, bridges, rocks, stepping stones, raked gravel, stone lanterns, etc., are used in a formal design…
   29. acclimatization garden 1878–
       A garden or nursery for the cultivation and development of introduced plants.
   30. cutting garden 1881–
       A garden, or area of a garden, in which flowers or other plants are grown for cutting and using in decorative arrangements, esp. within the home.
   31. bog-garden 1883–
       A piece of ground laid out and irrigated to grow plants whose habitat is bog-land and a peaty soil.
   32. Italian garden 1883–
       A formal garden, characterized by clipped trees, box-edged beds of flowers, paved paths, statues, fountains, etc.; often arranged in terraces linked…
   33. community garden 1884–
       A garden (esp. in an urban area) maintained by the members of a community; (now) spec. (a) North American one divided into allotments; (b) one…
   34. sink garden 1894–
       A miniature garden, comprising a group of small plants (often alpine varieties) grown in an old stone sink or similar container.
   35. butterfly garden 1898–
       A garden that provides an environment that attracts butterflies, as well as certain moths; (also) a large glass enclosure, area of a park, etc…
   36. sky garden 1901–
       A rooftop garden; a garden situated on one of the upper floors of a high-rise building.
   37. trough garden 1935–
       A miniature garden comprising a group of small plants, often alpine ones, grown in a trough-like container of real or imitation stone; cf. sink garden…
   38. sand garden 1936–
       In Japanese landscape gardening, an open space covered with sand, the surface of which is raked into a pattern.
   39. Zen garden 1937–
       (Originally in Japan) an outdoor space in which natural materials (typically rocks and gravel or sand) are arranged in lines and patterns, creating…
   40. hydroponicum 1938–
       The building or garden in which hydroponics is practised.
   41. sensory garden 1966–
       A garden or area specially designed to appeal to the senses, with particular consideration for the visually-impaired or otherwise disabled…
   42. tub garden 1974–
       An area containing plants grown in tubs.
   43. rain garden 1994–
       An area of garden that lies below the level of its surroundings, designed to absorb rainwater that runs off from an impervious surface such as a…
   44. back-garden
       esp. Applied to a part of a house or building which lies behind, and is usually subsidiary to the front or main part bearing the name, as back-bui…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Frequency

Zen garden typically occurs about 0.02 times per million words in modern written English.

Zen garden 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 Zen garden, n., 1930–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1930 | 0.0022
1940 | 0.0033
1950 | 0.005
1960 | 0.0076
1970 | 0.013
1980 | 0.018
1990 | 0.021
2000 | 0.024
2010 | 0.028

### Frequency of Zen garden, 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 | 0.026
2018 | 0.026
2019 | 0.028
2020 | 0.032
2021 | 0.033
2022 | 0.027
2023 | 0.027
2024 | 0.025

Originally published as part of the entry for Zen, n. & adj.

Zen garden, n. was first published in 2008.