📖 Z — The English dictionary · page 2

zinc — Everyday, meaning 1: Zinc is a bluish-white metal, a chemical element (symbol Zn).↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Zinc is used to coat iron and steel to stop rust.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: Zinc is a mineral your body needs in small amounts, found in foods like meat, nuts and beans.↗ Example: The bucket is coated with zinc so it won't rust.↗ · Zinc and copper make brass.↗ · The cricketer had white zinc cream on his nose.↗ · Batteries often contain zinc.↗ · Your body needs a little zinc to heal cuts.↗ · Zinc's symbol is Zn.↗

zing — Everyday, meaning 1: (informal) Zing is energy, excitement or liveliness.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (informal) Zing is a sharp, fresh, tangy taste, as from lemon or ginger.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A zing is a high, ringing or whistling sound, like something flying fast.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: To zing is to move very fast with a high sound; (informal, US) to zing someone is to make a cheeky joke at them.↗ Example: A squeeze of lime adds zing to the salsa.↗ · The new paint gave the classroom some zing.↗ · The arrow zinged past the knight's ear.↗ · Grandpa is still full of zing at eighty.↗ · This lemonade has a real zing!↗ · The ball zinged off the bat and over the fence.↗ · Your story needs more zing at the start.↗

zinger — Everyday, meaning 1: (informal) A zinger is a quick, clever and funny remark, often a sharp joke at someone.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (informal) A zinger can also be something surprising or striking, like a zinger of a question.↗ Example: Grandma came back with a real zinger that made everyone laugh.↗ · The comedian had a zinger for every heckler.↗ · The quiz ended with a zinger of a question.↗ · He thought of the perfect zinger an hour too late.↗ · A good zinger is funny without being cruel.↗ · Her speech ended with a zinger.↗

zion — In Jewish tradition, meaning 1: A hill in Jerusalem, and a name for Jerusalem and the land and people of Israel.↗ Example: Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion.↗ (Writings PSA.147.12, JPS 1917)↗ · That build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.↗ (Prophets MIC.3.10, JPS 1917)↗ · Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion!↗ (Writings PSA.14.7, JPS 1917)↗

zip — Everyday, meaning 1: A zip is a fastener with two rows of small teeth that join when you pull a tab, used on coats, bags and trousers (zipper in American English).↗ Everyday, meaning 2: To zip something means to close it with a zip.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: To zip means to move very fast.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: In computing, to zip files means to squash them into a smaller file.↗ Everyday, meaning 5: Zip can mean nothing or zero in informal American speech.↗ Everyday, meaning 6: A zip file is a computer file that has been squashed into a smaller size, and its name ends in .zip.↗ Example: Zip up your coat, it's cold.↗ · The zip on my bag is broken.↗ · A car zipped past us.↗ · We went down the zip line at camp.↗ · He zipped the files and emailed them.↗ · The score was six to zip.↗ · What's your zip code?↗

zither — Everyday, meaning 1: A zither is a musical instrument with many strings stretched over a flat wooden box; you lay it on a table or your lap and pluck the strings with your fingers or a pick.↗ Example: The man in the Austrian café played the zither.↗ · A zither has dozens of strings over a flat box.↗ · The Chinese guzheng is a kind of zither.↗ · You pluck the zither strings with your fingers.↗ · The film «The Third Man» has famous zither music.↗ · We heard a zither at the folk festival.↗

zodiac — Everyday, meaning 1: The zodiac is a band of twelve star patterns (constellations) across the sky that the Sun, Moon and planets seem to move through during the year.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: In astrology, the zodiac is divided into twelve signs, such as Aries, Leo and Pisces, and people's «star sign» depends on their birthday.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: The Chinese zodiac is a cycle of twelve animals, one for each year, like the Rat, Ox, Tiger and Dragon.↗ Example: There are twelve signs of the zodiac.↗ · «What's your star sign?»↗ «I'm a Leo.»↗ · The Chinese zodiac has twelve animals.↗ · In the story, the Rat won the zodiac race by riding on the Ox's back.↗ · Astronomers study the stars; astrologers make horoscopes, which are not science.↗ · The zodiac constellations lie along the path of the Sun in the sky.↗ · Constellations; especially the twelve signs of the Zodiac.↗ (Sefer Yetzirah, Kalisch 1877)↗

zodiacal — In Jewish tradition, meaning 1: Having to do with the zodiac, the twelve star signs of the sky.↗ Example: These letters are the initials of the 12 Zodiacal (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1893)↗

zombie — Everyday, meaning 1: In stories, films and games, a zombie is a made-up dead person who has come back to life and walks around slowly without thinking.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (informal) A zombie is a person who is very tired or not paying attention and moves without thinking.↗ e.g. I'm a zombie in the mornings.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (informal) Zombie can describe something that keeps going although it is useless or should have ended: a zombie company.↗ Example: My brother dressed up as a zombie for Halloween.↗ · Zombies are not real; they are made up for stories.↗ · I'm a total zombie until I've had breakfast.↗ · The zombies in the game move very slowly.↗ · After the sleepover we walked around like zombies.↗ · The film was about a town full of zombies.↗

zone — Everyday, meaning 1: A zone is an area or part of a place that is different from the areas around it or is used for a special purpose.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Time zones are areas of the world that use the same clock time.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: To zone out means to stop paying attention.↗ Example: Drivers must slow down in the school zone.↗ · This is a quiet zone; please whisper.↗ · The playground has a football zone and a quiet zone.↗ · London and New York are in different time zones.↗ · Polar bears live in the cold polar zone.↗ · Stay out of the danger zone near the machine.↗ · I zoned out during the long film.↗ · By Indians he might have meant Ethio- pians, or any other nation under the torrid zone which the ancients used tu denominate as Indians (T. (Mordell, The Origin of Letters and Numerals according to Sefer Yetzirah (1914))↗

zoo — Everyday, meaning 1: A zoo is a place where wild animals are kept so that people can see them and learn about them.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Good zoos help rare animals by breeding them and keeping them safe.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: In speech, «a zoo» means a very busy, noisy place: «The classroom was a zoo».↗ Example: The zoo has 12 lions and 8 tigers.↗ · 240 people visited the zoo on Monday.↗ · A ticket to the zoo costs $9.↗ · How many animals are in the zoo?↗ · We saw the penguins being fed at the zoo.↗ · Zoos help to protect animals that are in danger.↗ · Please don't feed the animals at the zoo.↗ · The house was a zoo with five children and two dogs.↗ · So when the largest elephant in the Zoo was carried off by a dragon, the papers gave up pretending--and put ALARMING PLAGUE OF DRAGONS at the top of the paper.↗

zoological — Everyday, meaning 1: To do with zoology, the science of animals: zoological research.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: To do with a zoo or a collection of animals: a zoological garden (the full old name for a zoo).↗ Example: The city zoo was once called the Zoological Gardens.↗ · The zoological museum has skeletons of whales.↗ · Scientists from the zoological society counted the birds.↗ · She wants a zoological career, studying frogs.↗ · A zoological park gives animals more space than an old zoo.↗ · We read a zoological book about insects.↗

zoology — Everyday, meaning 1: The science that studies animals: their bodies, how they live, grow, behave and where they come from.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: The animal life of a place: «the zoology of Australia» (formal).↗ Example: Zoology is the study of animals.↗ · My cousin is studying zoology at university.↗ · We learned some zoology when we sorted animals into groups.↗ · A zoology book explained how bats find their way in the dark.↗ · She wants a job in zoology, working with gorillas.↗ · Kipling's stories are fun, but zoology tells us how the camel really got its hump.↗

zoom — Everyday, meaning 1: To zoom is to move very fast, often with a buzzing or roaring sound.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: To zoom in is to make a picture look bigger and closer, on a camera, phone or screen; to zoom out is to make it look smaller and farther away.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: To zoom (up) is to rise very quickly, like prices or numbers.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: Zoom is also the name of a video-call app.↗ Example: A sports car zoomed past our house.↗ · Zoom in on the map to see our street.↗ · Zoom out so we can see the whole country.↗ · The kids zoomed around the playground on their scooters.↗ · The rocket zoomed up into the sky.↗ · The photographer used a zoom lens to snap the bird.↗ · We had a class call on Zoom when school was closed.↗

zoster — Everyday, meaning 1: (medicine) Short for herpes zoster, the medical name for shingles: a painful rash of blisters, usually in a stripe on one side of the body.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (medicine) Part of the name of the varicella-zoster virus, the virus that causes chickenpox and later can cause shingles.↗ Example: Zoster is the medical name for shingles.↗ · Grandma had herpes zoster and her side was very sore.↗ · The varicella-zoster virus causes both chickenpox and shingles.↗ · The doctor offered Grandad a zoster vaccine.↗ · Zoster usually appears as a stripe of blisters on one side of the body.↗ · You can only get zoster if you have had chickenpox before.↗

zulu — Everyday, meaning 1: The Zulu are a large people of southern Africa, living mostly in South Africa, especially KwaZulu-Natal.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Zulu (isiZulu) is their language, the most widely spoken home language in South Africa.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: «Zulu» is the word for the letter Z in the international spelling alphabet (Alpha, Bravo …↗ Yankee, Zulu).↗ Everyday, meaning 4: (military, aviation) «Zulu time» means world standard time (UTC).↗ Example: Zulu is one of South Africa's official languages.↗ · «Sawubona» means «hello» in Zulu.↗ · The Zulu kingdom was powerful under King Shaka.↗ · My cousin spelled her postcode on the phone: «Bravo, Zulu, one, four».↗ · The pilot gave the time in Zulu time.↗ · We watched a Zulu dance with drums and shields.↗