zeatin, n.

zeatin
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zeatin_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2018

# zeatinnoun

## Earlier version

- zeatin in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zeatin mean?

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

### How common is the noun zeatin?

About 0.04occurrences per million words in modern written English

1960 | 0.048
1970 | 0.044
1980 | 0.041
1990 | 0.041
2000 | 0.046
2010 | 0.042

### How is the noun zeatin pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈziːətɪn/
ZEE-uh-tin

#### U.S. English

/ˈziədən/
ZEE-uh-duhn

### Where does the noun zeatin come from?

Earliest known use

1960s

The earliest known use of the noun zeatin is in the 1960s.

OED's earliest evidence for zeatin is from 1963, in the writing of D. S. Letham.

zeatin is formed within English, by derivation.

Etymons: zea n., English ‑t‑, ‑in suffix1.

### Nearby entries

1. zealousness, n. c1555–
2. zealousy, n. 1542–
3. zeal-pretending, adj. 1652–69
4. zeal-quenching, adj. 1688–1877
5. zeal-scoffing, adj. 1605
6. zeal-transported, adj. a1644–59
7. zeal-worthy, adj. 1797
8. zea maize, n. 1811–
9. zearalanol, n. 1966–
10. zearalenone, n. 1966–
11. zeatin, n.1963–
12. zeaxanthin, n. 1929–
13. Zebedist, n. 1574
14. zebra, n. 1597–
15. zebra caterpillar, n. 1841–
16. zebra crossing, n. 1934–
17. zebra danio, n. 1917–
18. zebraed, adj. 1806–
19. zebra finch, n. 1868–
20. zebrafish, n. 1771–
21. zebraic, adj. 1858–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by derivation.
Etymons: zea n., English ‑t‑, ‑in suffix1.
< zea n. + ‑t‑, connective + ‑in suffix1.

## Meaning & use

Biochemistry.

1. 1963–
   A plant hormone (a cytokinin) first isolated from maize kernels and found in a variety of other plants; (also) an isomer or derivative of this.
   Chemical name: (E)-2-methyl-4-(1H-purin-6-ylamino)-2-buten-1-ol; C10H13N5O.
   1. 1963

      > For this factor the name zeatin is proposed since it was first isolated in crystalline form from Zea mays.

      D. S. Letham in Life Science vol. 2 572
   2. 1973

      > Coconut milk..contains a high concentration of zeatin.

      D. W. Krogmann, Biochem. Green Plants xi. 196
   3. 1980

      > All the cytokinins, at 10−6 M and above, inhibited both the initiation and the emergence of lateral roots, zeatin being the most powerful inhibitor.

      Physiologia Plantarum vol. 49 304/1
   4. 2014

      > The plant..is also rich in zeatin, a plant hormone which has an anti-ageing effect on skin cells.

      MailOnline (Nexis) 19 April
   life sciences organic chemistry
   1. hormone 1911–
      Any of numerous organic compounds produced by plants which regulate growth and other physiological activities; (also) any synthetic compound…
   2. wound hormone 1921–
      A substance that is produced in a plant in response to a wound and stimulates healing; cf. traumatic acid n. at traumatic, adj. & n.compounds.
   3. plant hormone 1932–
      = hormone, n. 2.
   4. phytohormone 1933–
      A hormone produced by a plant; = hormone, n. 2.
   5. auxin 1934–
      An organic substance which promotes and directs the growth of plant cells; a growth hormone.
   6. heteroauxin 1935–
      A growth-promoting hormone, (C8H6N)CH2·COOH, that occurs in some plants and micro-organisms; also called β-indolyl acetic acid, 3-indoleacetic acid.
   7. florigen 1936–
      An unidentified hormone supposed to induce flowering in plants.
   8. traumatic acid 1939–
      Botany. traumatic acid, a plant hormone that is found in damaged tissue in some plants and promotes its repair; dodec-2-ene-1,12-dioic acid…
   9. abscisin 1961–
      Either of two substances that promote leaf abscission, (a) (more fully abscisin I) one isolated from cotton bolls (now historical); (b) (more fully…
   10. zeatin 1963–
       A plant hormone (a cytokinin) first isolated from maize kernels and found in a variety of other plants; (also) an isomer or derivative of this.
   11. cytokinin 1965–
       Any of a large group of natural and synthetic purine derivatives that function as growth regulators in plants, acting to promote cell division…
   12. antheridiol 1967–
       A steroid hormone produced by female hyphae of the filamentous fungus Achlya bisexualis, which stimulates the male hyphae to produce antheridia.
   13. abscisic acid 1968–
       A plant hormone which promotes seed and bud dormancy and inhibits germination.
   14. oogoniol 1975–
       A steroid hormone produced by male hyphae of several filamentous fungi of the genus Achlya, which stimulates female hyphae to produce oogonia. Cf. a…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈziːətɪn/
ZEE-uh-tin

### U.S. English

/ˈziədən/
ZEE-uh-duhn

####

##### 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

zeatin typically occurs about 0.04 times per million words in modern written English.

zeatin 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 zeatin, n., 1960–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1960 | 0.048
1970 | 0.044
1980 | 0.041
1990 | 0.041
2000 | 0.046
2010 | 0.042

zeatin, n. was revised in June 2018.

zeatin, n. was last modified in July 2023.