Zr, n.

zr
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zr_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 2013

# Zrnoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun Zr mean?

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

### How common is the noun Zr?

About 0.6occurrences per million words in modern written English

1810 | 0.017
1820 | 0.017
1830 | 0.016
1840 | 0.013
1850 | 0.014
1860 | 0.021
1870 | 0.024
1880 | 0.029
1890 | 0.039
1900 | 0.066
1910 | 0.086
1920 | 0.13
1930 | 0.21
1940 | 0.31
1950 | 0.4
1960 | 0.55
1970 | 0.63
1980 | 0.66
1990 | 0.65
2000 | 0.66
2010 | 0.59

### How is the noun Zr pronounced?

#### British English

/ˌzɛdˈɑː/
zed-AR

#### U.S. English

/ˌziˈɑr/
zee-AR

### Where does the noun Zr come from?

Earliest known use

1810s

The earliest known use of the noun Zr is in the 1810s.

OED's earliest evidence for Zr is from 1814.

Zr is formed within English, by clipping or shortening.

Etymons: zirconium n.

### Nearby entries

1. zostera, n. 1819–
2. zosterops, n. 1867–
3. Zouave, n. 1848–
4. zouk, n. 1986–
5. zounds, v. 1680
6. zounds, int. a1593–
7. Zou-Zou, n. 1860–
8. zowie, int. 1902–
9. zoysia, n. 1965–
10. ZPG, n. 1970–
11. Zr, n.1814–
12. zubr, n. 1763–
13. zubrowka, n. 1916–
14. zucarine, adj. a1425
15. zucca, n. 1818–
16. zucchetto, n. 1853–
17. zucchini, n. 1916–
18. zuche, n. 1358–1676
19. Zuckerkandl, n. 1910–
20. zufolo, n. 1724–
21. zug, n. 1899–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by clipping or shortening.
Etymon: zirconium n.
Symbolic abbreviation for zirconium n., after use as symbolic abbreviation for scientific Latin zirconium zirconium n. in the system introduced by Berzelius (see quot. 1814).

## Meaning & use

Chemistry.

1. 1814–
   The element zirconium.
   1. 1814

      > Zirconium. (Zr).

      translation of J. J. Berzelius in Annals of Philosophy vol. 3 251
   2. 1857

      > Zircon (2 Zr2O3, SiO3), a silicate of zirconia, a precious stone from the island of Ceylon.

      J. B. Fessenden, translation of A. Huard, Epitome Chemistry 53
   3. 1906

      > Ammonia in presence of ammonium chloride may precipitate Be, Zr, Th.., and Yttrium earths as hydroxides.

      H. J. H. Fenton, Notes on Qualitative Analysis (new edition) 155
   4. 1964

      > Alloys of Ti and of Zr with other metals have been made by using the oxide or carbide of these metals with the carbide or oxide of the alloying agents.

      Advances in Inorganic Chem. & Radiochem. vol. 6 192
   5. 2002

      > The larger and smaller spheres represent Zr and H atoms, respectively.

      Journal Alloys & Compounds vol. 330 314/1 (caption)
   chemistry
   1. zirconium 1808–
      A hard lustrous grey metallic chemical element, atomic no. 40, which is one of the transition metals, occurs chiefly in zircon, and is used as a…
   2. Zr 1814–
      The element zirconium.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˌzɛdˈɑː/
zed-AR

### U.S. English

/ˌziˈɑr/
zee-AR

####

##### 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

Zr typically occurs about 0.6 times per million words in modern written English.

Zr 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 Zr, n., 1810–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1810 | 0.017
1820 | 0.017
1830 | 0.016
1840 | 0.013
1850 | 0.014
1860 | 0.021
1870 | 0.024
1880 | 0.029
1890 | 0.039
1900 | 0.066
1910 | 0.086
1920 | 0.13
1930 | 0.21
1940 | 0.31
1950 | 0.4
1960 | 0.55
1970 | 0.63
1980 | 0.66
1990 | 0.65
2000 | 0.66
2010 | 0.59

### Frequency of Zr, 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.

Period | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
2017 | 0.061
2018 | 0.07
2019 | 0.08
2020 | 0.098
2021 | 0.12
2022 | 0.14
2023 | 0.15
2024 | 0.16

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

Zr, n. was first published in December 2013.

Zr, n. was last modified in July 2023.