zoom, int.

zoom
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zoom_int%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zoominterjection

## Earlier version

- zoom, int. in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the interjection zoom mean?

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

### How common is the interjection zoom?

About 0.03occurrences per million words in modern written English

1850 | 0.0008
1860 | 0.0008
1870 | 0.0011
1880 | 0.0014
1890 | 0.0022
1900 | 0.0033
1910 | 0.0046
1920 | 0.0056
1930 | 0.0075
1940 | 0.01
1950 | 0.015
1960 | 0.02
1970 | 0.025
1980 | 0.031
1990 | 0.035
2000 | 0.039
2010 | 0.043

### How is the interjection zoom pronounced?

#### British English

/zuːm/
zoom

#### U.S. English

/zum/
zoom

### Where does the interjection zoom come from?

Earliest known use

1850s

The earliest known use of the interjection zoom is in the 1850s.

OED's earliest evidence for zoom is from 1856, in Knickerbocker.

zoom is an imitative or expressive formation.

### Nearby entries

1. zoologically, adv. 1799–
2. zoologico-, comb. form
3. zoologico-archaeologist, n. 1864
4. zoologist, n. 1663–
5. zoologize, v. 1830–
6. zoologizing, n. 1815–
7. zoology, n. 1663–
8. zoom, n. 1917–
9. zoom, v.¹ 1886–
10. Zoom, v.² 2014–
11. zoom, int.1856–
12. zoomable, adj. 1972–
13. zoomagnetism, n. 1824–
14. zooman, n. 1871–
15. zoomancy, n. 1888–
16. zoomania, n. 1807–
17. zoomantist, n. 1861
18. Zoomar, n. 1946–
19. zoomechanical, adj. 1897
20. zoomechanics, n. 1888–1903
21. zoomelanin, n. 1858–

## Etymology

### Summary

An imitative or expressive formation.
Imitative.

Compare later zoom n., zoom v.1

## Meaning & use

1. 1856–
   Representing a zooming sound, as made by something travelling at speed. Frequently used to express a sudden swift movement or (figurative) a rapid change, as a sudden rise or fall in fortunes.
   1. 1856

      > Essayed to read a small Roman Catholic book..when ‘zoom!’ a yellow-jacket hornet stung him under the left ear.

      Knickerbocker September 319
   2. 1867

      > The foe—they come; Sound, sound the drum! Zoom! Rat-a-tat!

      Galaxy November 612
   3. 1939

      > I would dance a few light fantastic steps..and zoom! like a breeze I was on the piano stool and doing a velocity exercise.

      H. Miller, Tropic of Capricorn 258
   4. 1942

      > Men..just lucky enough to hold a job a few years and then—zoom!

      D. Powell, Time to be Born vi. 130
   5. 1976

      > People began to talk about him. An article appeared in Advertising Age... Then he wrote a guest column for the Hollywood Reporter. Zoom.

      National Observer (U.S.) 25 December 4/2
   6. 2009

      > I saw the bike accelerating: it just went ‘zoom’ past us.

      West Briton (Nexis) 26 November 8
   1. zoom 1856–
      Representing a zooming sound, as made by something travelling at speed. Frequently used to express a sudden swift movement or (figurative) a rapid…
   View in Historical Thesaurus
   1. zoom 1856–
      Representing a zooming sound, as made by something travelling at speed. Frequently used to express a sudden swift movement or (figurative) a rapid…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/zuːm/
zoom

### U.S. English

/zum/
zoom

####

##### 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

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

zoom 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 zoom, int., 1850–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1850 | 0.0008
1860 | 0.0008
1870 | 0.0011
1880 | 0.0014
1890 | 0.0022
1900 | 0.0033
1910 | 0.0046
1920 | 0.0056
1930 | 0.0075
1940 | 0.01
1950 | 0.015
1960 | 0.02
1970 | 0.025
1980 | 0.031
1990 | 0.035
2000 | 0.039
2010 | 0.043

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. zoom, n. 1917–
   Cinematography and Photography. A camera shot…

1. zoomy, adj. 1931–
   Esp. of a vehicle, its engine, etc.: that zooms…

zoom, int. was revised in June 2017.

zoom, int. was last modified in July 2023.