zone
pronunciation
How to pronounce zone in British English:
UK [zəʊn]
How to pronounce zone in American English:
US [zoʊn]
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- Noun:
- a circumscribed geographical region characterized by some distinctive features
- any of the regions of the surface of the Earth loosely divided according to latitude or longitude
- an area or region distinguished from adjacent parts by a distinctive feature or characteristic
- (anatomy) any encircling or beltlike structure
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- Verb:
- regulate housing in; of certain areas of towns
- separate or apportion into sections
Word Origin
- zone (n.)
- late 14c., from Latin zona "geographical belt, celestial zone," from Greek zone "a belt, the girdle worn by women at the hips," related to zonnynai "to gird," from PIE root *yos- "to gird" (cognates: Avestan yasta- "girt," Lithuanian juosiu "to gird," Old Church Slavonic po-jasu "girdle"). The 10c. Anglo-Saxon treatise on astronomy translates Latin quinque zonas as fyf gyrdlas. Originally one of the five great divisions of the earth's surface (torrid, temperate, frigid; separated by tropics of Cancer and Capricorn and Arctic and Antarctic circles); meaning "any discrete region" is first recorded 1822. Zone defense in team sports is recorded from 1927.
- zone (v.)
- 1760, "mark with zones," from zone (n.). Land use planning sense is from 1916. Related: Zoned; zoning.
Example
- 1. Every woman 's personal comfort zone is different .
- 2. Sketch illustrating melting at a subduction zone .
- 3. This shows up in yawning imbalances inside the zone .
- 4. Israel has yet to delimit its economic zone with lebanon .
- 5. It 's actually more a of a zone than a spot .