zooidal, adj.

zooidal
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zooidal_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zooidaladjective

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zooidal mean?

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

### How common is the adjective zooidal?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1860 | 0.0037
1870 | 0.0035
1880 | 0.003
1890 | 0.0027
1900 | 0.0032
1910 | 0.0033
1920 | 0.0021
1930 | 0.0022
1940 | 0.0035
1950 | 0.0045
1960 | 0.0049
1970 | 0.0048
1980 | 0.0048
1990 | 0.0053
2000 | 0.0058
2010 | 0.0043

### Where does the adjective zooidal come from?

Earliest known use

1850s

The earliest known use of the adjective zooidal is in the 1850s.

OED's earliest evidence for zooidal is from 1858, in Philosophical Transactions.

### Nearby entries

1. zoograph, n. 1623
2. zoographer, n. 1646–
3. zoographic, adj. 1741–
4. zoographical, adj. 1651–
5. zoographically, adv. 1835–
6. zoographist, n. 1749–1874
7. zoography, n. 1593–
8. zoogyroscope, n. 1880–
9. zooid, n. 1851–
10. zooid, adj. 1849
11. zooidal, adj.1858–
12. zooidogamous, adj. 1891–
13. zookeeper, n. 1886–
14. zookeeping, n. 1929–
15. Zookers, int. 1620–
16. Zooks, int. 1600–
17. zoolater, n. 1876–
18. zoolatrous, adj. 1876–
19. zoolatry, n. 1784–
20. zoolite, n. 1768–
21. zoologer, n. 1663–

## Meaning & use

Biology.

1. 1858–
   Of or relating to a zooid or zooids.
   Stressed as zoˈoidal.
   1. 1858

      > It countenances the idea of the zooidal individuality of each annulus.

      Philosophical Transactions (Royal Society) vol. 148 107
   2. 1886

      > The larger [tubuli] I regard as zoöidal tubes.

      Geological Magazine December 535
   3. 1959

      > Kenozooid is the name applied to heterozooids that lack zooidal differentiation.

      L. H. Hyman, Invertebrates vol. V. xx. 331
   4. 2006

      > The characters included a combination of zooidal features traditionally used in cheilostome taxonomy.

      Journal of Paleontology vol. 80 245
   ecology
   1. zooidal 1858–
      Of or relating to a zooid or zooids.
   2. zoonitic 1860–91
      Of or relating to a zoonite or zoonites.
   3. zoid 1864–
      Applied to a larval or zoea stage in Crustacea.
   View in Historical Thesaurus
   1. zooidal 1858–
      Of or relating to a zooid or zooids.
   2. zoonitic 1860–91
      Of or relating to a zoonite or zoonites.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Frequency

zooidal typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.

zooidal is in frequency band 2, which contains words occurring between 0.001 and 0.01 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 zooidal, adj., 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 | 0.0037
1870 | 0.0035
1880 | 0.003
1890 | 0.0027
1900 | 0.0032
1910 | 0.0033
1920 | 0.0021
1930 | 0.0022
1940 | 0.0035
1950 | 0.0045
1960 | 0.0049
1970 | 0.0048
1980 | 0.0048
1990 | 0.0053
2000 | 0.0058
2010 | 0.0043

Originally published as part of the entry for zooid, n.

zooid, n. was revised in June 2017.