Zone

How to spell zone

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce zone

What does zone mean?

1. nounA clearly defined area set apart by particular features, rules, or purposes.
2. verbTo designate or divide land or space for a particular use.

Zone in a sentence

• noun

  The council marked the street as a no-parking zone.

• verb

  Planners voted to zone the riverside for housing.

• noun

  Passengers in the green zone board the train first.

• verb

  Officials may zone the district for light industry only.

Where does zone come from?

Language of origin: Greek

Zone comes from the Greek word zōnē, which literally meant a belt or girdle worn around the waist. Ancient geographers borrowed the image to describe the broad belts of climate that seemed to wrap around the globe, dividing the Earth into hot, temperate, and frigid bands. The term passed into Latin as zona and then into English through French in the late 1300s, at first carrying this strictly geographical and astronomical sense. Over the centuries it broadened to mean any clearly bounded area set aside for a particular purpose, from postal zones to parking zones. The single z and the long o spelled with a silent final e are the only points to watch, and the word stays remarkably close to its Greek belt for so old a borrowing.

How the word is built

• zon- (from Greek zōnē: belt, girdle)
• -e