zygospore, n.

zygospore
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zygospore_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 1921; not fully revised

# zygosporenoun

## Earlier version

- zygospore in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zygospore mean?

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

#### Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

### How common is the noun zygospore?

About 0.05occurrences per million words in modern written English

1870 | 0.15
1880 | 0.17
1890 | 0.17
1900 | 0.17
1910 | 0.18
1920 | 0.16
1930 | 0.15
1940 | 0.14
1950 | 0.12
1960 | 0.094
1970 | 0.074
1980 | 0.062
1990 | 0.052
2000 | 0.043
2010 | 0.037

### How is the noun zygospore pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzʌɪɡə(ʊ)spɔː/
ZIGH-goh-spor
/ˈzɪɡə(ʊ)spɔː/
ZIG-oh-spor

#### U.S. English

/ˈzaɪɡəˌspɔr/
ZIGH-guh-spor

### Where does the noun zygospore come from?

Earliest known use

1860s

The earliest known use of the noun zygospore is in the 1860s.

OED's earliest evidence for zygospore is from 1864, in Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science.

zygospore is a borrowing from German.

Etymons: German zygospor.

### Nearby entries

1. zygopleura, n. 1883–
2. zygopterid, n. & adj. 1900–
3. zygosis, n. 1880–
4. zygosity, n. 1952–
5. zygosome, n. 1905–
6. zygosperm, n. 1880–
7. zygosphenal, adj. 1854–
8. zygosphene, n. 1854–
9. zygosphere, n. 1880–
10. zygospondyline, adj. 1892–
11. zygospore, n.1864–
12. zygosporic, adj. 1906–
13. zygostat, n. 1623
14. zygostatical, adj. 1656
15. zygostyle, n. 1881–
16. zygote, n. 1891–
17. zygotene, n. 1911–
18. zygotic, adj. 1909–
19. -zygotic, comb. form
20. zygotically, adv. 1915–
21. zygotoblast, n. 1899–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from German.
Etymon: German zygospor.
< German zygospor: see zygo- comb. form and spore n.

## Meaning & use

Botany.

1. 1864–
   A spore formed by conjugation; a germ-cell arising from the fusion of two similar cells (gametes), as in certain Algæ and Fungi.
   1. 1864

      > I have..made use of..the more apt term ‘Zygospore’, as suggested by Professor De Bary in his work ‘Untersuchungen..’ in preference to the..inaccurate term ‘Sporangium’ of most other authors.

      Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science vol. 4 178
   2. 1875

      > The threads which conjugate to form the zygospores.

      M. C. Cooke, Fungi 164
   fungi
   1. zygospore 1864–
      A spore formed by conjugation; a germ-cell arising from the fusion of two similar cells (gametes), as in certain Algæ and Fungi.
   2. zygosperm 1880–
      = zygospore, n.
   3. zygosphere 1880–
      Either of the two conjugating cells or gametes which form a zygospore.
   4. azygospore 1889–
      A parthenogenetic zygospore.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzʌɪɡə(ʊ)spɔː/
ZIGH-goh-spor
/ˈzɪɡə(ʊ)spɔː/
ZIG-oh-spor

### U.S. English

/ˈzaɪɡəˌspɔr/
ZIGH-guh-spor

####

##### 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

zygospore typically occurs about 0.05 times per million words in modern written English.

zygospore 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 zygospore, n., 1870–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1870 | 0.15
1880 | 0.17
1890 | 0.17
1900 | 0.17
1910 | 0.18
1920 | 0.16
1930 | 0.15
1940 | 0.14
1950 | 0.12
1960 | 0.094
1970 | 0.074
1980 | 0.062
1990 | 0.052
2000 | 0.043
2010 | 0.037

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. azygospore, n. 1889–
   A parthenogenetic zygospore.

1. zygosporic, adj. 1906–
   Of the nature of or producing zygospores.

zygospore, n. was first published in 1921; not fully revised.

zygospore, n. was last modified in July 2023.