noun · verb · 28 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
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Pronunciation
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General-American:zōn
General-American:/zoʊn/
Received-Pronunciation:/zəʊn/
US:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
rhymes with -əʊn
CMU ARPABET:Z OW1 N
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
noun
Meaning 1
Each of the five regions of the earth's surface into which it was divided by climatic differences, namely the torrid zone (between the tropics), two temperate zones (between the tropics and the polar circles), and two frigid zones (within the polar circles).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic
Topics: geography, natural-sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
noun
Meaning 2
Any given region or area of the world.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
3
noun
Meaning 3
A given area distinguished on the basis of a particular characteristic, use, restriction, etc.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
There is a no-smoking zone that extends 25 feet outside of each entrance.
The white zone is for loading and unloading only.
Files in the Internet zone are blocked by default, as a security measure.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
4
noun
Meaning 4
A restricted category or virtual place.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: broadly
Examples
The discussion was veering off into a danger zone.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
5
noun
Meaning 5
A band or area of growth encircling anything.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
a zone of evergreens on a mountain
the zone of animal or vegetable life in the ocean around an island or a continent
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
6
noun
Meaning 6
A band or stripe extending around a body.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
7
noun
Meaning 7
A series of planes having mutually parallel intersections.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
15
noun
Meaning 15
A belt or girdle.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: literary
Examples
17th c, John Dryden, 2005, Pygmalion and the Statue, Paul Hammond, David Hopkins (editors), The Poems of John Dryden: Volume Five: 1697-1700, page 263, Her tapered fingers too with rings are graced, / And an embroidered zone surrounds her slender waist.
18th c, William Collins, The Passions: An Ode for Music, 1810, Alexander Chalmers, Samuel Johnson (editors), The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper, Volume 13, page 204, Love fram'd with Mirth a gay fantastic round, / Loose were her tresses seen, her zone unbound,
1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto I, LV, 1827, The Works of Lord Byron, including The Suppressed Poems, page 565, There was the Donna Julia, whom to call / Pretty were but to give a feeble notion / Of many charms in her as natural / As sweetness to the flower, or salt to ocean, / Her zone to Venus, or his bow to Cupid / (But this last simile is trite and stupid).
1844, Charles Dickens, The life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, 1865, Works of Charles Dickens, Volume VI: Martin Chuzzlewit—Volume II, page 421, [...] it was the prettiest thing to see her girding on the precious little zone, and yet obliged to have assistance because her fingers were in such terrible perplexity; [...].
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
16
noun
Meaning 16
The curved surface of a frustum of a sphere, the portion of surface of a sphere delimited by parallel planes.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: geometry, mathematics, sciences
Examples
1835, Charles Davies, David Brewster (editors and translators), Adrien-Marie Legendre, Elements of Geometry and Trigonometry, [1794, Eléments de géométrie], page 293, To find the surface of a spherical zone. Rule.—Multiply the altitude of the zone by the circumference of a great circle of the sphere, and the product will be the surface (Book VIII. Prop. X. Sch. 1).
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
17
noun
Meaning 17
A frustum of a sphere.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: broadly
Qualifier: perhaps by meronymy
Topics: geometry, mathematics, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
18
noun
Meaning 18
A circuit; a circumference.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
19
verb
Meaning 19
To divide into or assign to sections or areas.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
Examples
Please zone off our staging area, a section for each group.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
20
verb
Meaning 20
To define the property use classification of (an area).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
Examples
This area was zoned for industrial use.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
21
verb
Meaning 21
To enter a daydream state temporarily, for instance as a result of boredom, fatigue, or intoxication; to doze off.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive, slang
Examples
I must have zoned while he was giving us the directions.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
22
verb
Meaning 22
To assign to a restricted category.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
We've zoned each other as friends; we'll never be anything more.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
23
noun
Meaning 23
(anatomy) any encircling or beltlike structure
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: zona
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: structure, anatomical structure, complex body part, bodily structure, body structure
Narrower terms: zona pellucida, zonule, zonula
24
noun
Meaning 24
an area or region distinguished from adjacent parts by a distinctive feature or characteristic
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.