zed

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zed^¹

/zɛd/

Rhymes with -ɛd

Where it comes from

From Middle English zed, zedde, zede, from Old French zede, from Late Latin zeta, from Ancient Greek ζῆτα (zêta), from Hebrew ז (zayin) with influence from βῆτα (bêta), ἦτα (êta) and θῆτα (thêta). The letter had a rare usage in Old English, such as in bezt, where it represented "ts" (compare the German, Italian, and Finnish pronunciation of Z). For the sleep sense, see zzz. The zombie sense comes from the initial letter. Doublet of zeta. Cognate to Spanish zeta, German Zett, French zède, Italian zeta, and perhaps Portuguese zê.

noun zeds

Commonwealth, Ireland The name of the Latin script letter Z/z. Zzz...With all those ʻzedsʼ I'll be sending you to sleep.
Similar: 1-3
Commonwealth, Ireland, in compounds Something Z-shaped. zed-bar
Commonwealth, Ireland, colloquial, plural normally Sleep. I'm going to go get some zeds.
Similar: zee
Commonwealth, Ireland, slang A zombie. A horde of zeds began to shuffle into the shopping mall.

Similar: izzard, uzzard

verb zeds · zedding · zedded

Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, informal, intransitive To sleep or nap. (Compare zzz, catch some z's.) Zedding hogs. Sleep sippers and spitters. Look at 'em cooking in their own snoring heat. One nose after another.
Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, intransitive, rare To zigzag; to move with sharp alternating turns. We were zedding hell-bells up the hill towards Cervione, with a bank of road metal and a precipice on our left...

Zed^²

proper noun

A diminutive of the male given name Zedekiah. “So you changed it.” “Yes.” He turns off the tap. “Why did you choose the name Zed? What does it mean?” “Nothing. It's the last letter of the alphabet.”

Zed^³

noun Zeds

alternative Alternative form of Z (“a member of Generation Z”). Youth jargon is in constant flux. What may be all the go today, may disappear tomorrow. Herein some of the slang may be recognisable to Y-ers but not Zeds and vice versa.
Alternative letter-case form of zed (“the name of the Latin script letter Z/z”).

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: zee, zeta, zhee, z-variant, double s, zulu, zebra, epsilon, zwnj, zalgo, xyzzy, hanzi, zwastika, zetacism, double-u, alpha

noun

Similar: izzard, uzzard

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MLA

"zed." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/zed. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

zed. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/zed

Chicago

"zed." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/zed.

BibTeX

@misc{zed_2026,
  title = {zed},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/zed},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}

zed