zirconolite, n.

zirconolite
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zirconolite_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2021

# zirconolitenoun

## Earlier version

- zirconolite in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zirconolite mean?

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

### How common is the noun zirconolite?

About 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1950 | 0.0049
1960 | 0.0091
1970 | 0.0089
1980 | 0.0087
1990 | 0.01
2000 | 0.012
2010 | 0.015

### How is the noun zirconolite pronounced?

#### British English

/zəːˈkɒnəlʌɪt/
zur-KON-uh-light
/zəˈkɒnəlʌɪt/
zuh-KON-uh-light

#### U.S. English

/zərˈkɑnəˌlaɪt/
zuhr-KAH-nuh-light

### Where does the noun zirconolite come from?

Earliest known use

1950s

The earliest known use of the noun zirconolite is in the 1950s.

OED's earliest evidence for zirconolite is from 1957, in Chemical Abstracts.

zirconolite is formed within English, by compounding; modelled on a Russian lexical item.

Etymons: zircono- comb. form, ‑lite comb. form1.

### Nearby entries

1. zircon blue, n. & adj. 1928–
2. zircon earth, n. 1794–
3. zirconia, n. 1794–
4. zirconian, adj. 1802–
5. zirconic, adj. 1804–
6. zirconite, n. 1806–
7. zirconitic, adj. 1883–
8. zirconium, n. 1808–
9. zircon-like, adj. 1857–
10. zircono-, comb. form
11. zirconolite, n.1957–
12. zircon-syenite, n. 1813–
13. zirconyl, n. 1887–
14. zirkelite, n. 1895–
15. zit, n. 1912–
16. zit cream, n. 1968–
17. zitella, n. a1660–
18. zit-face, n. 1974–
19. zit-faced, adj. 1971–
20. zither, n. 1831–
21. zither, v. 1889–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by compounding; modelled on a Russian lexical item.
Etymons: zircono- comb. form, ‑lite comb. form1.
< zircono- comb. form + ‑lite comb. form1, after Russian cirkonolit (L. S. Borodin et al. 1956, in Doklady Akad. Nauk SSSR vol. 110 845).

## Meaning & use

Mineralogy.

1. 1957–
   Any of a group of very similar minerals which consist of mixed oxides of calcium, zirconium, and titanium, and occur as small black or brown prisms or more commonly in amorphous form.
   Chemical formula: CaZrTi2O7, usually with thorium, cerium, and other metals. Crystal system: orthorhombic (also monoclinic and trigonal).
   Very similar to zirkelite n., and sometimes not distinguished from it.
   1. 1957

      > The new mineral zirconolite, a complex oxide of the type AB3O7.

      Chemical Abstracts vol. 51 6440 (heading)
   2. 1980

      > Synthetic zirconolite..has been proposed as a constituent phase of an artificial rock (SYNROC) which may immobilise, in solid solution, the elements occurring in high-level nuclear reactor wastes.

      Nature 17 January 282/1
   3. 2006

      > The residues' final waste form will be a ceramic composite employing zirconolite, which is appropriate for plutonium immobilization.

      Platts NuclearFuel (Nexis) 22 May 13
   minerals
   1. beudantite 1826–
      A mineral occurring in modified acute rhombohedrons, containing sesquioxide of iron and oxide of lead, with phosphoric or arsenic acid, or both…
   2. thrombolite 1844–
      Mineralogy. A copper mineral found in amorphous green masses, now known to be a mixture consisting mainly of pseudomalachite. Now rare or disused.
   3. corkite 1875–
      A synonym of beudantite, n.
   4. zirkelite 1895–
      A black or dark brown mineral which is a mixed oxide of zirconium, calcium, titanium, thorium, and other elements, occurring as small prisms or…
   5. russellite 1938–
      A rare mineral consisting of bismuth tungstate, occurring as pale yellow or green fine-grained masses.
   6. zirconolite 1957–
      Any of a group of very similar minerals which consist of mixed oxides of calcium, zirconium, and titanium, and occur as small black or brown…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zəːˈkɒnəlʌɪt/
zur-KON-uh-light
/zəˈkɒnəlʌɪt/
zuh-KON-uh-light

### U.S. English

/zərˈkɑnəˌlaɪt/
zuhr-KAH-nuh-light

####

##### 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

## Frequency

zirconolite typically occurs about 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.

zirconolite 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 zirconolite, n., 1950–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1950 | 0.0049
1960 | 0.0091
1970 | 0.0089
1980 | 0.0087
1990 | 0.01
2000 | 0.012
2010 | 0.015

zirconolite, n. was revised in March 2021.

zirconolite, n. was last modified in July 2023.