zendo, n.

zendo
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zendo_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2018

# zendonoun

## Earlier version

- zendo in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zendo mean?

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

### How common is the noun zendo?

About 0.03occurrences per million words in modern written English

1920 | 0.0003
1930 | 0.0015
1940 | 0.0037
1950 | 0.006
1960 | 0.011
1970 | 0.016
1980 | 0.022
1990 | 0.025
2000 | 0.029
2010 | 0.033

### How is the noun zendo pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzɛndəʊ/
ZEN-doh

#### U.S. English

/ˈzɛndoʊ/
ZEN-doh

### Where does the noun zendo come from?

Earliest known use

1910s

The earliest known use of the noun zendo is in the 1910s.

OED's earliest evidence for zendo is from 1914, in the writing of G. C. Pier.

zendo is a borrowing from Japanese.

Etymons: Japanese zendō.

### Nearby entries

1. zendaletto, n. 1789–
2. Zend-Avesta, n. 1630–
3. Zend-Avestaic, adj. 1816
4. Zend-Avestan, adj. & n. 1871–
5. Zend-Avestic, adj. 1864–
6. Zendic, n. & adj. 1771–
7. Zendician, n. a1833–66
8. Zendicism, n. 1697–
9. Zendish, adj. & n. 1802–1921
10. Zendist, n. 1877–1907
11. zendo, n.1914–
12. Zener, n.¹ 1934–
13. Zener, n.² 1949–
14. Zengakuren, n. 1950–
15. Zen garden, n. 1937–
16. zenick, n. 1801–1900
17. zenitfer, n. 1596–
18. zenith, n. & adj. a1387–
19. zenithal, adj.?1731–
20. zenithal projection, n. 1877–
21. zenith-borne, adj. 1865–86

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from Japanese.
Etymon: Japanese zendō.
< Japanese zendō meditation hall (9th cent.), apparently < Middle Chinese (compare Chinese chántáng).

Compare Japanese zen Buddhist meditation (see Zen n.) and dō reception hall, (Shinto or Buddhist) place…
< Japanese zendō meditation hall (9th cent.), apparently < Middle Chinese (compare Chinese chántáng).

Compare Japanese zen Buddhist meditation (see Zen n.) and dō reception hall, (Shinto or Buddhist) place of worship (8th cent.; < Middle Chinese; compare Chinese táng: see tong n.2).

## Meaning & use

1. 1914–
   A room or hall used for Zen Buddhist meditation and study. Also in extended use: a school or centre giving instruction in Zen meditation and practice.
   1. 1914

      > There rises the long, low Zendô, a lecture hall devoted to the discussion of the Dhyâna or ‘meditative doctrine’ of the Zenshû Buddhists.

      G. C. Pier, Temple Treasures Japan 142
   2. 1938

      > The Hall of Meditation, or Zendo, is characteristic of the Zen sanctuaries.

      M. Logé, translation of E. Steinilber-Oberlin, Buddhist Sects Japan viii. 141
   3. 1956

      > With the intellect alert and the sensibilities dull, insight may require years in a Zendō.

      Philos. East & West 1 April 42
   4. 1999

      > Later, she opened a zendo (teaching centre) in Manila.

      Toronto Star (Nexis) 26 September
   5. 2016

      > In a zendo, where I practise regularly, part of the thing is to clean the floor.

      Guardian (Nexis) 1 January
   Buddhism
   1. zendo 1914–
      A room or hall used for Zen Buddhist meditation and study. Also in extended use: a school or centre giving instruction in Zen meditation and practice.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzɛndəʊ/
ZEN-doh

### U.S. English

/ˈzɛndoʊ/
ZEN-doh

####

##### 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.

1. 1900s–
   zen-do (rare), zendo

#### 2. Also with capital initial.

## Frequency

zendo typically occurs about 0.03 times per million words in modern written English.

zendo 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 zendo, 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 | 0.0003
1930 | 0.0015
1940 | 0.0037
1950 | 0.006
1960 | 0.011
1970 | 0.016
1980 | 0.022
1990 | 0.025
2000 | 0.029
2010 | 0.033

zendo, n. was revised in June 2018.

zendo, n. was last modified in July 2023.