zirconium, n.

zirconium
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zirconium_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2021

# zirconiumnoun

## Earlier version

- zirconium in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zirconium mean?

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

### How common is the noun zirconium?

About 0.7occurrences per million words in modern written English

1810 | 0.021
1820 | 0.027
1830 | 0.03
1840 | 0.036
1850 | 0.045
1860 | 0.064
1870 | 0.083
1880 | 0.11
1890 | 0.15
1900 | 0.26
1910 | 0.35
1920 | 0.5
1930 | 0.87
1940 | 1.2
1950 | 1.2
1960 | 1.2
1970 | 1.1
1980 | 0.8
1990 | 0.53
2000 | 0.47
2010 | 0.4

### How is the noun zirconium pronounced?

#### British English

/zəːˈkəʊniəm/
zur-KOH-nee-uhm
/zəˈkəʊniəm/
zuh-KOH-nee-uhm

#### U.S. English

/zərˈkoʊniəm/
zuhr-KOH-nee-uhm

### Where does the noun zirconium come from?

Earliest known use

1800s

The earliest known use of the noun zirconium is in the 1800s.

OED's earliest evidence for zirconium is from 1808, in the writing of Humphry Davy, chemist and inventor.

zirconium is formed within English, by derivation.

Etymons: zircon n., ‑ium suffix.

### Nearby entries

1. zircaloy, n. 1953–
2. zircon, n. 1794–
3. zirconate, n. 1820–
4. zircon blue, n. & adj. 1928–
5. zircon earth, n. 1794–
6. zirconia, n. 1794–
7. zirconian, adj. 1802–
8. zirconic, adj. 1804–
9. zirconite, n. 1806–
10. zirconitic, adj. 1883–
11. zirconium, n.1808–
12. zircon-like, adj. 1857–
13. zircono-, comb. form
14. zirconolite, n. 1957–
15. zircon-syenite, n. 1813–
16. zirconyl, n. 1887–
17. zirkelite, n. 1895–
18. zit, n. 1912–
19. zit cream, n. 1968–
20. zitella, n. a1660–
21. zit-face, n. 1974–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by derivation.
< zircon n. + ‑ium suffix…
< zircon n. + ‑ium suffix.

### Notes

Coined by H. Davy (compare quot. 1808 at main sense). Compare alumium n., silicium n.
In form zirconum showing alteration after ‑um (in the names of other metals): compare alumium n., aluminum n., and aluminium n., and see discussion of H. Davy's coinages at those entries.

## Meaning & use

1. 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 coating for nuclear fuel rods, in corrosion-resistant alloys, etc. Symbol Zr.
   1. 1808

      > Had I been so fortunate as to have..procured the metallic substances I was in search of, I should have proposed for them the names of silicium, alumium, zirconium, and glucium.

      H. Davy in Philosophical Transactions (Royal Society) vol. 98 353
   2. 1812

      > No substance has as yet been formed..in which zirconum can be supposed to exist free from oxygene.

      H. Davy, Elements of Chemical Philosophy 361
   3. 1868

      > Zirconium..is a tetrad metal.

      H. B. Jones & H. Watts, Fownes's Manual of Elementary Chemistry 382
   4. 1955

      > In its ores zirconium is invariably accompanied by hafnium, which absorbs neutrons all too readily.

      Scientific American October 35
   5. 1995

      > Unfortunately zirconium tugs hard on the purse strings, at about £3.5 million a tonne.

      New Scientist 23 December 47/1
   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

/zəːˈkəʊniəm/
zur-KOH-nee-uhm
/zəˈkəʊniəm/
zuh-KOH-nee-uhm

### U.S. English

/zərˈkoʊniəm/
zuhr-KOH-nee-uhm

####

##### 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. 1800s
   zirconum
2. 1800s–
   zirconium

## Frequency

zirconium typically occurs about 0.7 times per million words in modern written English.

zirconium 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 zirconium, 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 | 0.021
1820 | 0.027
1830 | 0.03
1840 | 0.036
1850 | 0.045
1860 | 0.064
1870 | 0.083
1880 | 0.11
1890 | 0.15
1900 | 0.26
1910 | 0.35
1920 | 0.5
1930 | 0.87
1940 | 1.2
1950 | 1.2
1960 | 1.2
1970 | 1.1
1980 | 0.8
1990 | 0.53
2000 | 0.47
2010 | 0.4

### Frequency of zirconium, 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 | 0.088
2018 | 0.083
2019 | 0.081
2020 | 0.07
2021 | 0.076
2022 | 0.08
2023 | 0.084
2024 | 0.086

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. zirconian, adj. 1802–
   Of, relating to, or containing zircon or…

1. Zr, n. 1814–
   The element zirconium.

1. zircaloy, n. 1953–
   Any of several alloys of zirconium with tin and…

1. zircono-, comb. form
   Forming words denoting compounds, molecules…

1. 1858–
   In general use as a modifier.
   1. 1858

      > Zirconium salts are believed to be sesqui-salts.

      A. B. Northcote & A. H. Church, Manual Qualitative Chem. Analysis i. vi. 106
   2. 1868

      > Zirconium Oxide..is prepared by strongly igniting zircon.

      H. B. Jones & H. Watts, Fownes's Manual of Elementary Chemistry (ed. 10) 382
   3. 1906

      > The osmium, tantalum, and zirconium incandescent filaments of electric glow-lamps.

      Athenæum 1 September 245/3
   4. 1995

      > Picture the catalyst as a large pair of jaws with a zirconium metal atom sitting in the center.

      Science News 14 January 23/2
   5. 2004

      > Silver lactate has been used in anti-dandruff shampoos, and zirconium lactate makes a good antiperspirant.

      J. Emsley, Vanity, Vitality, & Virility (2006) i. 13

zirconium, n. was revised in March 2021.

zirconium, n. was last modified in March 2025.