<ancient Greekζῷον animal (see zoonn.) + ‑oidsuffix.Compare Byzantine Greekζῳοειδής (adjective) resembling an animal. Compare also scientific Latinzoidia (see zoidiophilousadj.), Frenchzooïde (1847 in a use…
<ancient Greekζῷον animal (see zoonn.) + ‑oidsuffix.Compare Byzantine Greekζῳοειδής (adjective) resembling an animal. Compare also scientific Latinzoidia (see zoidiophilousadj.), Frenchzooïde (1847 in a use distinct from and independent of Huxley's).Compare slightly earlier zooidadj. and slightly later zoidn.
Meaning & use
Biology.
1851–
An organism or (esp. in early use) motile cell thought to resemble an animal but not to be one in a strict or full sense; esp. an invertebrate animal generated by budding, division, or other means of asexual reproduction; spec. any of the individuals which make up a colonial animal (bryozoan, cnidarian, etc.) and which often have specialized forms and functions. Frequently attributive. Cf. zoonn.
nurse zooid: see the first element.
Frequently as the second element in names of specialized forms of zooid, as anthozooid, gastrozooid, trophozooid, etc.
1851
In strictness both Salpa B and Salpa A are only parts of individuals,—are organs... It is proposed therefore to call them, and all pseudo-individual forms resembling them, ‘zoöids’, bearing in mind always that while the distinction between zoöid and individual is real,..that between zoöid and organ is purely conventional.
T. H. Huxley in Philosophical Transactions (Royal Society) vol. 141 579
1865
The generative system is thrown off as it were, in the form of male and female zooids, destined to live but for a brief period, and more motile than the parent stock.
Natural History Reviewvol. 5 372
1870
In the Polyzoa polymorphic zooids are produced by gemmation.
G. Rolleston, Forms of Animal Life p. lxxxvi
1880–1
The flagella are developed..by both the motile and sedentary zooids [in the genus Colacium].
W. Saville-Kent, Manual of Infusoriavol. I. 394
1888
These zooids were a lively lot, and we had no difficulty in tracing the vibratory motion to the base of the spermatheca.
Journal Microsc. & Nat. Sciencevol. 1 237
1910
Around these tubes the uninjured zooids divide and grow with increased activity.
F. Wood-Jones, Coral & Atolls ix. 110
1967
When zooids are excited via the normal pathway of the putative rachidial nerve net, they luminesce only after the second or subsequent shocks.
Biological Bulletinvol. 133 459
1983
Zooid rows continue to proliferate throughout growth [in a bryozoan], allowing branches to widen proximal to a bifurcation.
Paleobiologyvol. 9 245/2
2010
Funicular tissue is associated with minute communication pores in the zooid walls.
Biol. Bulletinvol. 219 221/1
2013
Each type of zooid has a specific role and cannot survive without the others.
Observer 13 October (Tech Monthly Supplement) 23/2
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
1800s
zöoid
1800s–1900s
zoöid
1800s–
zooid
Frequency
zooid typically occurs about 0.1 times per million words in modern written English.
zooid is in frequency band 4, which contains words occurring between 0.1 and 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 zooid, n., 1850–2010
* 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
1850
0.26
1860
0.38
1870
0.36
1880
0.4
1890
0.42
1900
0.39
1910
0.27
1920
0.29
1930
0.26
1940
0.23
1950
0.24
1960
0.23
1970
0.18
1980
0.17
1990
0.14
2000
0.1
2010
0.087
Frequency of zooid, 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.