Zinoviev letter, n.

zinoviev-letter
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zinoviev-letter_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2021

# Zinoviev letternoun

## Earlier version

- Zinoviev in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun Zinoviev letter mean?

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

### How common is the noun Zinoviev letter?

About 0.02occurrences per million words in modern written English

1920 | 0.028
1930 | 0.036
1940 | 0.035
1950 | 0.032
1960 | 0.033
1970 | 0.03
1980 | 0.025
1990 | 0.023
2000 | 0.014
2010 | 0.012

### How is the noun Zinoviev letter pronounced?

#### British English

/zᵻˌnɒviɛf ˈlɛtə/
zuh-nov-ee-eff LET-uh
/zᵻˌnɒviɛv ˈlɛtə/
zuh-nov-ee-ev LET-uh

#### U.S. English

/zɪˌnoʊviɛf ˈlɛdər/
zin-oh-vee-eff LED-uhr
/zɪˌnoʊviɛv ˈlɛdər/
zin-oh-vee-ev LED-uhr

### Where does the noun Zinoviev letter come from?

Earliest known use

1920s

The earliest known use of the noun Zinoviev letter is in the 1920s.

OED's earliest evidence for Zinoviev letter is from 1924, in the Daily Mail (London).

From a proper name, combined with an English element.

Etymons: proper name Zinoviev, letter n.1

### Nearby entries

1. zingingly, adv. 1952–
2. zingo, int. 1906–
3. zingy, adj. 1938–
4. Zinjanthropus, n. 1959–
5. zinke, n. 1773–
6. zinnia, n. 1761–
7. zinnober green, n. 1879–
8. zinnwaldite, n. 1850–
9. zino, n. 1982–
10. Zinovievite, adj. & n. 1936–
11. Zinoviev letter, n.1924–
12. Zion, n. Old English–
13. Zion Curtain, n. 1951–
14. Zioner, n. 1681–1760
15. Zionism, n. 1896–
16. Zionist, n. & adj. a1649–
17. Zionistic, adj. 1887–
18. Zionite, n. 1596–
19. Zionless, adj. 1908
20. Zionward, adv. 1647–
21. Zionwards, adv. 1674–

## Etymology

### Summary

From a proper name, combined with an English element.
Etymons: proper name Zinoviev, letter n.1
< the name of Grigori Zinoviev (see Zinovievite adj.) + letter n.1

## Meaning & use

1. 1924–
   A leaked letter published by the British Daily Mail on 25th October 1924 ostensibly from Grigori Zinoviev, president of the Communist International, urging the Communist Party of Great Britain to commit acts of treason.
   The letter is believed to be a forgery designed to weaken support for the first Labour government shortly before the general election.
   1. 1924

      > Rakovsky had sent a reply to the Foreign Office declaring that the Zinoviev letter was a forgery.

      Daily Mail 27 October 9/3
   2. 1979

      > Mr Benn told a Bristol audience that the Tories..were dragging out the old Zinoviev Letter technique.

      Guardian 28 April 32/8
   3. 1998

      > Reports stated that the Zinoviev letter had been forged in Riga..by a White Russian..who was in touch with the British secret service.

      Birmingham Post (Nexis) 13 February 6
   politics
   1. Zinoviev letter 1924–
      A leaked letter published by the British Daily Mail on 25th October 1924 ostensibly from Grigori Zinoviev, president of the Communist…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zᵻˌnɒviɛf ˈlɛtə/
zuh-nov-ee-eff LET-uh
/zᵻˌnɒviɛv ˈlɛtə/
zuh-nov-ee-ev LET-uh

### U.S. English

/zɪˌnoʊviɛf ˈlɛdər/
zin-oh-vee-eff LED-uhr
/zɪˌnoʊviɛv ˈlɛdər/
zin-oh-vee-ev LED-uhr
/zɪˌnɑviɛf ˈlɛdər/
zin-ah-vee-eff LED-uhr
/zɪˌnɑviɛv ˈlɛdər/
zin-ah-vee-ev LED-uhr

####

##### 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. 1900s–
   Zinovieff letter, Zinoviev letter

## Frequency

Zinoviev letter typically occurs about 0.02 times per million words in modern written English.

Zinoviev letter 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 Zinoviev letter, n., 1920–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1920 | 0.028
1930 | 0.036
1940 | 0.035
1950 | 0.032
1960 | 0.033
1970 | 0.03
1980 | 0.025
1990 | 0.023
2000 | 0.014
2010 | 0.012

Zinoviev letter, n. was revised in March 2021.

Zinoviev letter, n. was last modified in July 2023.