zeal
/zil/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.28 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The fervour or tireless devotion for a person, cause, or ideal and determination in its furtherance; diligent enthusiasm; powerful interest.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "She extols the virtues of veganism with missionary zeal."
- "I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge."
- "Zeal, the blind conductor of the will"
- "[…] the highest zeal in religion and the deepest hypocrisy, so far from being inconsistent, are often or commonly united in the same individual character."
- "[He] would begin admiring her drawings with so much zeal and so little knowledge as seemed terribly like a would-be lover,"
- "It [Troutbeck] has religious isolation also, for it is several miles—and very strenuous miles in winter—from the parish church at Mungrisdale, and the introduction of the harmonium to the waiting room was due to the zeal of a vicar of many years ago who, in the absence of any other room in the village, obtained permission to use the premises for services, including Sunday School. Most of his successors have continued this self-sacrificing duty."
Etymology
From Middle English zele, from Old French zel, from Late Latin zēlus, from Ancient Greek ζῆλος (zêlos, “zeal, jealousy”), from Proto-Indo-European *yeh₂- (“to search”). Related to jealous.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /zil/
- British English: /ziːl/