Zee

How to spell zee

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce zee

What does zee mean?

1. nounThe American name for the twenty-sixth and final letter of the alphabet, Z.
2. nounA short period of sleep, used chiefly in the informal phrase about catching some sleep.

Zee in a sentence

• Children in the United States sing the alphabet ending with a zee rather than a zed.

• He managed only a short zee on the sofa before the night shift.

• The brand spells its name with a stylised zee at the end.

• She grabbed a quick zee on the sofa before the night shift.

Where does zee come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This is the American name for the final letter of the alphabet, the letter Z. Its older sibling is the British and Canadian form 'zed', which reached English through Old French 'zede' and ultimately from the Greek 'zeta', the name of the corresponding Greek letter; the Greeks in turn took it from the Phoenician letter 'zayin', meaning 'weapon' or 'sword'. The form 'zee' is a comparatively recent American innovation, recorded by the late 1600s and popularised in the United States during the 1800s, partly through spelling books and the famous alphabet song that needed a rhyme for 'C, D, E, G, P, T'. It was shaped purely by analogy with the other consonant names that end in a long -ee sound, such as 'bee', 'cee', 'dee' and 'tee'. The spelling is delightfully simple, so the only real trap is remembering that it ends in a double -ee rather than a single -e.

How the word is built

• zee (American name of the letter Z, formed by analogy with bee, cee, dee, ending in the long -ee sound)