Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Zoo |
ZooNoun1. The facility where wild animals are housed for exhibition. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "zoo" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1897. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Computing | Zoo Berkeley Yacc zoo |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A zoological garden, or zoo for short, is a place where wild animals are cared for and exhibited to the public.
The first zoos were private menageries, usually belonging to kings. After the French Revolution, the Paris zoo was opened to the public.
Over time, the mission of zoos has shifted from simply displaying exotic animals, to breeding them, and in particular maintaining populations of animals that are endangered or even extinct in the wild.
Most modern zoos keep animals in naturalistic enclosures. These enclosures are large enough for the animals to exercise in, and to have some privacy. Zoo visitors occasionally find this frustrating, but overall the experience is improved both for the animals and for the people who come to see them. Recent clever designs encourage the animals to prefer locations where they can be observed without being aware of it, for instance by having a darkened viewing window at the back of a shelter where the animals go to escape mid-day heat.
Many zoos now have special buildings for nocturnal animals, with dim red lighting during the day, so the animals will be active when visitors are there, and bright lights at night to ensure that they sleep.
A petting zoo features a combination of domestic animals and some wild species that are docile enough to touch and feed. Petting zoos are extremely popular with small children. In order to ensure the animals' health, the food is supplied by the zoo, either from vending machines or a kiosk nearby. In addition to independent petting zoos, also called children's farms, many general zoos contain one.
Sometimes monkeys are not separated from the public, e.g. in the Apenheul zoo in Apeldoorn. Peafowl are also frequently allowed to roam free in zoos.
Nearly all large cities of the world have zoos, though of drastically varying size and quality. Major zoos are important tourist attractions, sufficiently so that governments may underwrite or subsidize the zoo's operating expenses. Public funding of zoos is also justified by their educational value, and they are a common destination for school field trips. However, most zoo funding primarily comes from donations and entrance fees.
See also: List of zoos, Wildlife park, Aquarium, Marine park
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Zoo."
Synonyms: ZooSynonyms: menagerie (n), zoological garden (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Abode | Cage, terrarium, doghouse; pen, aviary; barn, stall; zoo. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Zoo |
| Specialty definitions using "zoo": ANIMAL KEEPER, HEAD, ANIMAL-NURSERY WORKER, Animals, Wild ♦ Berkeley Yacc ♦ children's zoo caretaker, COMMISSARY ASSISTANT, commissary helper ♦ director of major or capital gifts, DIRECTOR, EDUCATION, DIRECTOR, FUNDS DEVELOPMENT, DIRECTOR, MUSEUM-OR-ZOO ♦ education department registrar, EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE COORDINATOR, EXHIBIT ARTIST ♦ food preparer ♦ keeper, head ♦ lion food ♦ museum service scheduler ♦ Physical Conditioning, Animal ♦ superintendent, menagerie ♦ ZOO VETERINARIAN. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Zoo" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Basque (zoo), Czech (zoo), French (zoo), German (zoo), Italian (zoo), Spanish (zoo), Swedish (zoo). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | This zoo. This prison (The Matrix; writing credit: Andy Wachowski; Larry Wachowski) No! Maybe like work in a petting zoo. (Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery; writing credit: Mike Myers.) I've seen more action in a zoo. (Roustabout; writing credit: Allan Weiss; Anthony Lawrence) That's not how I remember it. Besides, if we wanted to see Japanese people we could have gone to the zoo! (The Simpsons; writing credit: Artur Brauner; Paul Hengge) Yeah, he's an entire petting zoo, Mom. (Less Than Perfect; writing credit: David Blum; Tom Hertz) | |
Lyrics | Partying with the Zoo Crew (Feel Me Flow; performing artist: Naughty By Nature) Oh oh oh oh and two by two my human zoo (The Prophet's Song; performing artist: Queen; writing credit: Brian May) I'll come and visit you in the zoo (One Season; performing artist: The Roches) | |
Clever | The zoo is a place for animals to study the behavior of human beings. (references; author: unknown) I got a job at a zoo feeding giraffes, but I was fired because I wasn't up to it. (references; author: unknown) The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo. (references; author: unknown) How to act insane: When leaving the zoo, start running towards the parking lot, yelling, "Run for your lives, they're loose! (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Zoo Gang (1974) New Zoo Revue (1972) Wacky Zoo of Morgan City (1972) The Naked Zoo (1971) Krtek v Zoo (1969) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Periodicals |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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High Tech |
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Consumer Goods | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Orphaned polar bear cubs - Ursus maritimus - being sent to zoo. Credit: NOAA's Ark (Animals). |  | Civilization and Billy didn't work out Billy at Seattle - afraid of the cars Billy was given a new home at the Seattle zoo. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |
 | Figs.1 and 2, Agaricia agaricites Milne-Edw. and Haime. Fig. 3, cirrhiped covered with coral. Figs. 4-6, Porites clavaria Lamarck. Fig. 7, Porites furcata Lamarck. Figures 9-12, Astrangia solitaria Verrill. Figs. 13-15, Colangia immersa Pourtales. In: "Report on the Florida Reefs", 1880, by Louis Agassiz. Mem. of Museum of Comp. Zoo. at Harvard, Vol. VII, No. 1. Plate XII. Credit: The Coral Kingdom. |  | Injured Swainsons Hawk at Zoo BoiseHawkBirds of PreyWildlife. Credit: Larry Ridenhour. |
 | Displays at the interagency public lands kiosk at Oregon Zoo. Credit: Rich Ray. |  | "Say 'ah'." Lion at London Zoo seems bored with captivity. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | People looking at elephant in zoo, Washington, D.C. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Black birches, Zoo park [National Zoological Park], Washington, D.C. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Lake in the zoo, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, Pa. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Zoo designed to attract tourists at Apache Junction, Arizona. Arizona is developing fast as a tourist state. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |  |
| "Seal in zoo" by Robert Horvath Commentary: "No comment." | "Zoo garden in antverpen" by Adam Kurzok Commentary: "Bird statue as an enter to antverpen (belgium) zoo free to use, just click www.creactive.cz." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Play | Caption |
 | Zoo animal sounds. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Similar diseases have occurred in elk, deer, and exotic zoo animals. (references) | |
In a few rare cases, TSEs have occurred in other mammals such as zoo animals. (references) | ||
The virus that caused the New York area outbreak has been definitively identified as a strain of WNV. The genomic sequences identified to date from human brain, virus isolates from zoo birds, dead crows, and mosquito pools are identical. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Jon Stewart | The rock guys, the morning zoo. The rock, that sort of thing. The rap, it all rhymes. It's just a difference of the beat. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Zoo" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 71.27% of the time. "Zoo" is used about 650 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 71.27% | 464 | 12,682 |
| Noun (proper) | 28.42% | 185 | 22,646 |
| Noun (common) | 0.31% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 650 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Country | Name |
| United Kingdom | Zoo Digital Group P.L.C. |
| (more examples...) |
Source: compiled by the editor from Icon Group International, Inc.
Expressions using "zoo": petting zoo ♦ zoo garden ♦ zoo keeper. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "zoo": Zoo-blot, zoo-geographical, zoo-keeper, zoo-keepers, zoo-man, zoo-owned, zoo-plankton. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
zoo | 5,596 | cleveland zoo | 645 |
san diego zoo | 3,617 | memphis zoo | 642 |
bronx zoo | 2,110 | travel zoo | 606 |
zoo tycoon | 1,826 | denver zoo | 599 |
brookfield zoo | 1,473 | ians zoo links | 554 |
st louis zoo | 1,380 | houston zoo | 550 |
cincinnati zoo | 1,357 | kansas city zoo | 541 |
zoo animal | 1,256 | woodland park zoo | 534 |
columbus zoo | 1,055 | milwaukee zoo | 523 |
philadelphia zoo | 999 | san antonio zoo | 514 |
toledo zoo | 938 | los angeles zoo | 498 |
toronto zoo | 933 | australia zoo | 497 |
detroit zoo | 929 | san francisco zoo | 466 |
cheat tycoon zoo | 889 | louisville zoo | 457 |
indianapolis zoo | 864 | fort worth zoo | 453 |
zoo atlanta | 817 | baltimore zoo | 434 |
pittsburgh zoo | 728 | omaha zoo | 434 |
minnesota zoo | 717 | calgary zoo | 420 |
lincoln park zoo | 693 | bird zoo | 417 |
national zoo | 657 | milwaukee county zoo | 389 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "zoo"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | dieretuin. (various references) | |
Albanian | kopsht zoologjik (menagerie). (various references) | |
Arabic | حديقة الحيوانات (menagerie). (various references) | |
Asturian | zou. (various references) | |
Basque | zoo. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | зоопарк. (various references) | |
Chinese | 动物园 (Zoo-), 動物園 . (various references) | |
Cornish | mýlva. (various references) | |
Czech | zoologická zahrada (zoological garden), zoo. (various references) | |
Danish | zoologisk have (zoological garden). (various references) | |
Dutch | dierentuin (zoological garden). (various references) | |
Ecuadorian Quechua | huihuahuasi. (various references) | |
Esperanto | zoologia ĝardeno. (various references) | |
Faeroese | dýragarður. (various references) | |
Farsi | پیشوندبمعنی حیوان -جانورومتحرک . (various references) | |
Finnish | eläintarhaeläin (zoo animal). (various references) | |
French | zoo (zoological garden). (various references) | |
Frisian | dieretún. (various references) | |
German | Zoo (zoological garden), Tierpark (zoological garden), Tiergarten (zoological gardens). (various references) | |
Greek | ζωολογικόσ κήποσ (vivarium, zoological garden), ζωολογικός κήπος. (various references) | |
Hebrew | גן חיות (menagerie, zoological garden), ביבר (menagerie, vivarium). (various references) | |
Hungarian | állatkert (menagerie, zoological garden). (various references) | |
Indonesian | kebun binatang. (various references) | |
Inuktitut | niqjutiqaqvik. (various references) | |
Irish | sú (of juice). (various references) | |
Italian | zoo (zoological garden), giardino zoologico (zoological gardens). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 動物園 (zoological gardens), 動物園 (zoological gardens). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | どうぶつえん (zoological gardens). (various references) | |
Macedonian | zooloshka gradina. (various references) | |
Malay | kebun-binatang. (various references) | |
Manx | garey baagh. (various references) | |
Norwegian | dyrehave. (various references) | |
Occitan | zoò. (various references) | |
Papago | mischini ha'ichu thoakam chehgitha. (various references) | |
Papiamen | hardin zoológiko. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | oozay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | jardim zoológico (vivarium). (various references) | |
Romanian | grãdinã zoologicã (zoological garden). (various references) | |
Russian | зоопарк. (various references) | |
Samoan | lotoa mo manu. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | zoološki vrt (zoological gardens). (various references) | |
Sicilian | giardinu zoologgicu. (various references) | |
Spanish | zoo (zoological garden), jardín zoológico, parque zoológico (zoological garden). (various references) | |
Swedish | zoologisk trädgård (zoological garden). (various references) | |
Thai | สวนสัตว์. (various references) | |
Turkish | hayvanat bahçesi (menagerie, zoological garden), hayvanat bahçesí. (various references) | |
Turkmen | haяwanat bagy. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | зоопарк (zoological garden). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | vườn thú. (various references) | |
Welsh | sw. (various references) | |
Zulu | izu, ilizu. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "zoo": zoochore, zoochores, zooecia, zooecium, zoogenic, zoogeographer, zoogeographers, zoogeographic, zoogeographical, zoogeographically, zoogeographies, zoogeography, zooglea, zoogleae, zoogleal, zoogleas, zoogloea, zoogloeae, zoogloeas, zooid, zooidal, zooids, zookeeper, zookeepers, zooks, zoolater, zoolaters, zoolatries, zoolatry, zoologic, zoological, zoologically, zoologies, zoologist, zoologists, zoology, zoom, zoomania, zoomanias, zoomed, zoometries, zoometry, zooming, zoomorph, zoomorphic, zoomorphs, zooms, zoon, zoonal, zoonoses, zoonosis. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "zoo": bazoo, gazoo, kazoo, wazoo. (additional references) | |
Words containing "zoo": azoospermia, azoospermias, bazooka, bazookas, bazooms, bazoos, cryptozoologies, cryptozoologist, cryptozoologists, cryptozoology, ectozoon, entozoon, enzootic, enzootics, epizoon, epizootic, epizootics, epizooties, epizootiologic, epizootiological, epizootiologies, epizootiology, epizooty, gadzookeries, gadzookery, gadzooks, gazoos, kazoos, madzoon, madzoons, matzoon, matzoons, metazoon, paleozoological, paleozoologies, paleozoologist, paleozoologists, paleozoology, protozoologies, protozoologist, protozoologists, protozoology, protozoon, protozoons, spermatozoon, sporozoon, waterzooi, waterzoois, wazoos. (additional references) | |
| |
"Zoo" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: aoo, azoo, dzo, ezo, Ezoe, oo, oooo, oza, Ozi, ozl, ozo, ozoa, ozor, ozu, sojo, soo, soxo, sozo, uzo, uzu, voo, Xoo, zaa, zae, zai, Zakob, zano, zao, zaor, zaq, zau, zav, zbo, zei, zej, zek, zelo, zeno, zeo, zeot, zepo, Zeqo, zeu, zevo, zexo, zho, zia, Ziboh, zih, zii, zij, zik, zino, zio, zior, ziq, ziu, ziv, zmo, zno, zo, zoae, zoao, zob, zoc, zod, zodo, zof, zofo, zog, zogo, zoh, zoi, zoia, zoie, zoj, zok, zol, zom, zon, zooa, zoob, zooc, zood, zooe, zoof, zoog, zooh, zooj, zook, zoop, zoor, zoot, zoou, zop, zoq, zor, zoro, zos, zot, zou, zoul, zoun, zour, zow, zox, zoy, zto, zue, zumo, Zuno, zuo, zuu, zwo, zyo. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "zoo" (pronounced zuw") |
| 2 | z uw" | kazoo, Xu. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words containing the letters "o-o-z" | |
+1 letter: bozo, mozo, ooze, oozy, orzo, ouzo, zoom, zoon, zoos. | |
+2 letters: bazoo, booze, boozy, bozos, doozy, gazoo, gonzo, kazoo, mozos, oozed, oozes, orzos, ouzos, ozone, trooz, wazoo, woozy, zooid, zooks, zooms, zoons, zooty. | |
+3 letters: bazoos, boozed, boozer, boozes, borzoi, doozer, doozie, floozy, foozle, gazoos, kazoos, kolhoz, kolkoz, oozier, oozily, oozing, ozones, ozonic, podzol, rebozo, snooze, snoozy, wazoos, zooids, zoomed, zoonal. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Sounds 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Quotations: Spoken 12. Usage Frequency | 13. Names: Company Usage 14. Expressions 15. Expressions: Internet 16. Translations: Modern | 17. Derivations 18. Rhymes 19. Anagrams 20. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
