Zeal

How to spell zeal

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce zeal

What does zeal mean?

1. nounGreat energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause, goal, or activity.

Zeal in a sentence

• She tackled the new project with such zeal that the whole team felt energised.

• His zeal for fitness meant he was at the gym before sunrise every day.

Where does zeal come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word comes from the Greek zelos, which meant ardour, eager rivalry, or even jealousy, the burning enthusiasm someone feels for a cause or a person. Latin borrowed it as zelus, and from there it passed into Old French as zele before reaching English in the late 1300s, often in religious writing about fervent devotion. The very same Greek root sits behind the words 'jealous' and 'jealousy', which followed a more emotional, possessive path while 'zeal' kept the sense of energetic enthusiasm. The spelling trap is the 'ea' vowel team, which sounds like a long 'e' but is written with two letters, and the silent slide from a Greek 'z' that English chose to keep. Knowing it shares an ancestor with 'jealous' is a handy reminder that both centre on intense, heated feeling.

How the word is built

• zeal (single root from Greek zelos: fervour, eager devotion); no prefix or suffix