zygosporic, adj.

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

# zygosporicadjective

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zygosporic mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the adjective zygosporic. 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 adjective zygosporic?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1900 | 0.0013
1910 | 0.0012
1920 | 0.001
1930 | 0.0011
1940 | 0.0008
1950 | 0.0006
1960 | 0.0005
1970 | 0.0005
1980 | 0.0004
1990 | 0.0004
2000 | 0.0003
2010 | 0.0002

### Where does the adjective zygosporic come from?

Earliest known use

1900s

The earliest known use of the adjective zygosporic is in the 1900s.

OED's earliest evidence for zygosporic is from 1906, in Science.

### Nearby entries

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

## Meaning & use

Botany.

1. 1906–
   Of the nature of or producing zygospores.
   Stressed as zygoˈsporic.
   1. 1906

      > Zygosporic cultures of the ‘Harvest Strain’ have..been kept running for nearly ten years.

      Science 27 July 122/2
   2. 1970

      > In some species [of the genus Endogone]..the fruit-body is entirely zygosporic.

      J. Webster, Introduction to Fungi ii. ii. 141
   plants physiology
   1. formal c1400–1676
      Of or pertaining to form, n., in various senses. Pertaining to the specific form of an animal or plant. Of a seed or germ: Endowed with a…
   2. sporular 1819–
      Having the character of, pertaining to, a sporule.
   3. zoosporous 1845–
      Producing zoospores; of the nature of, or effected by zoospores; = zoosporic, adj.
   4. zoosporic 1854–
      Producing zoospores; of the nature of, or effected by zoospores; = zoosporous, adj.
   5. polysporous 1858–
      Containing or producing numerous spores; involving or characterized by the production of numerous spores.
   6. polyspored 1882–
      = polysporous, adj.
   7. sporulating 1897–
   8. sporulated 1898–
   9. polyzoic 1901–
      Chiefly Zoology. Of, relating to, or designating a parasitic sporozoan whose oocysts produce a large number of sporozoites. rare.
   10. zygosporic 1906–
       Of the nature of or producing zygospores.
   11. polyspore 1959–
       Of or derived from many spores; = polysporous, adj.
   12. propagular 1967–
       Of or relating to a propagule or propagules.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Frequency

zygosporic typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.

zygosporic is in frequency band 1, which contains words occurring fewer than 0.001 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 zygosporic, adj., 1900–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1900 | 0.0013
1910 | 0.0012
1920 | 0.001
1930 | 0.0011
1940 | 0.0008
1950 | 0.0006
1960 | 0.0005
1970 | 0.0005
1980 | 0.0004
1990 | 0.0004
2000 | 0.0003
2010 | 0.0002

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

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