<scientific LatinZiphius, genus name (Cuvier Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles (1823) vol. V.i. 352 ; <post-classical Latinziphius a kind of sea monster (13th cent. or earlier; also zifius) <…
<scientific LatinZiphius, genus name (Cuvier Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles (1823) vol. V.i. 352 ; <post-classical Latinziphius a kind of sea monster (13th cent. or earlier; also zifius) <Byzantine Greekξίϕιος, variant of ancient Greekξιϕίας swordfish: see xiphiasn.) + ‑oidsuffix, originally after Frenchziphioïde and scientific Latinziphioidea (both 1850). Compare scientific LatinZiphioidea, suborder (later superfamily) name (1868).
Notes
In the (rare) β forms showing alteration after scientific LatinXiphius, emended form of the genus name (L. Agassiz 1846), and ancient Greekξιϕίας (see above). Compare xiphioidadj. & n., referring to the swordfish.
Meaning & use
Zoology.
adjective
1861–
Of or relating to the genus Ziphius or family Ziphiidae of beaked and bottlenose whales; belonging to or having the characteristics of this genus or family.
The group is also ranked as a superfamily Ziphioidea.
1861
M. Paul Gervais has addressed a communication to the Academy of Sciences on the subject of an extinct species of ziphoid cetaceous fish.
Times 27 September 10/3
1870
A Ziphioid Whale, probably Berardius Arnuxii.
Annals & Magazine of Natural Historyvol. 6 348
1889
By Purchase, the Museum acquired..the teeth of the rare Xiphioid Whale, Mesoplodon Layardii.
Rep. Trustees S.-Afr. Museum 1888 3
1949
So rare are observations on the ziphoid (beaked) whales at sea that readers of whaling journals and similar yarns should be sharp for the word ‘algerine’.
Journal Mammalogyvol. 30 321
2014
Van Beneden..proposed that Mesoplodon bidens was cosmopolitan in its distribution, a feature he considered to apply to most of the ziphioid whales.
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.
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.
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
α.
1800s–
ziphioid, ziphoid
β.
1800s
xiphoid
1800s–
xiphioid
Frequency
ziphioid typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.
ziphioid 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 ziphioid, adj. & n., 1860–2010
* 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
1860
0.001
1870
0.0009
1880
0.0013
1890
0.0012
1900
0.0013
1910
0.0012
1920
0.0009
1930
0.0009
1940
0.0008
1950
0.0006
1960
0.0006
1970
0.0005
1980
0.0003
1990
0.0003
2000
0.0003
2010
0.0003
ziphioid, adj. & n. was revised in March 2021.
ziphioid, adj. & n. was last modified in July 2023.