Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

zoonym

/ˈzoʊ.ə.nɪm/

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English

Syllables: zoonym
IPA: /ˈzoʊ.ə.nɪm/

20

Scrabble Score

6

Letters

1

Syllables

5

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

The common name for a (species of) animal

Example Sentences

"ln favour of their special relations with the front-Asian civilization there speaks not only the term knjiga but the zoonym opica as well."
"In a study of considerable interest, he claimed to find a correlation between the offensive use of an anima's name and its position in the cultural taxonomy: it is not so much the animal's negative characteristics as its position with respect to humans that determines the choice of zoonym for an insult."
"By contrast, the zoonym mockingbird denotes the bird species Mimus polyglottus, a bird which imitates the cries or the notes of other birds, and lives in southern North America, Central America […]"

Etymology

From zoo- + -onym.

Word Breakdown

Prefix: zoo
Suffix: onym

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /ˈzoʊ.ə.nɪm/
British English: /ˈzəʊ.ə.nɪm/

Inflected Forms

zoonyms (plural)

Questions

How do you pronounce zoonym?: The recorded pronunciation is /ˈzoʊ.ə.nɪm/.
What does zoonym mean?: The common name for a (species of) animal
Where does zoonym come from?: From zoo- + -onym.

How to pronounce zoonym

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “zoonym”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈzoʊ.ə.nɪm/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “zoonym”.
Repeat and practice — Say “zoonym” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.