zoom
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /zuːm/, enPR: zo͞om
Audio (Southern England) (file) - Rhymes: -uːm
Etymology 1
Uncertain. The verb was attested in 1892, noun in 1918 and interjection in 1942. Apparently related to Scots soom (“to buzz, hum”), dialectal English and Scots soom, swoom, sweem (“to spin or twirl at high speed”). Compare also dialectal English sweem (“to swoon, become dizzy or faint”).
Noun
zoom (plural zooms)
- A humming noise from something moving very fast.
- the zoom of traffic
- (figurative) A quick ascent.
- (figurative) A big increase.
- An augmentation of a view, by varying the focal length of a lens, or digitally.
- What's the zoom like on your camera?
Translations
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Verb
zoom (third-person singular simple present zooms, present participle zooming, simple past and past participle zoomed)
- To move fast with a humming noise.
- We zoomed along the highway.
- 1957, Jack Kerouac, On the Road, Viking Press, →OCLC:
- […] and it was strange sitting in their brand-new comfortable car and hearing them talk of exams as we zoomed smoothly into town.
- (aviation) To zoom climb.
- To move rapidly.
- To go up sharply.
- prices zoomed
- (photography) To change the focal length of a zoom lens.
- To manipulate a display so as to magnify or shrink it.
Derived terms
Descendants
Translations
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Interjection
zoom
- Representing a humming sound
- 1918, Annie Vivanti Chartres, The Outrage, page 196:
- Makowsky was playing the Bassgeige. Zoom... zoom-zoom.... The rest of the orchestra would join in presently.
- Suggesting something moving quickly
- 1939, Henry Miller, Tropic of Capricorn, Grove Press, published 1962, page 244:
- I would dance a few light fantastic steps to show which way the wind lay, and zoom! Like a breeze I was on the piano stool and doing a velocity exercise.
- Suggesting a sudden change, especially an improvement or an increase
Etymology 2
Genericization of the trademark Zoom, a video teleconferencing software.
Verb
zoom (third-person singular simple present zooms, present participle zooming, simple past and past participle zoomed)
- To participate in a video teleconferencing call.
Noun
zoom (plural zooms)
- A video teleconferencing call.
- 2022 September 27, Barclay Bram, “My Therapist, the Robot”, in The New York Times:
- Then, later that day, I logged onto a zoom call and my mother and I set up our yoga mats in the living room, as we had been doing a couple of times a week during the pandemic.
Dutch
Etymology 1
From Middle Dutch sôom, from Old Dutch *sōm, from Proto-West Germanic *saum, from Proto-Germanic *saumaz (“that which is sewn”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /zoːm/
Audio (file) - Hyphenation: zoom
- Rhymes: -oːm
Noun
zoom m (plural zomen, diminutive zoompje n)
Derived terms
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /zuːm/
- Hyphenation: zoom
Related terms
Etymology 3
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Pronunciation 1
- IPA(key): /zoːm/
Audio (file) - Hyphenation: zoom
- Rhymes: -oːm
Pronunciation 2
- IPA(key): /zuːm/
Audio (file) - Hyphenation: zoom
French
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /zum/
Audio (file) - Homophone: zooms
- Hyphenation: zoom
Derived terms
Further reading
- “zoom”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
German
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /zuːm/
Audio (file)
Italian
Norwegian Bokmål
Portuguese
Alternative forms
- zum (rare)
Noun
zoom m (plural zooms)
- zoom (augmentation of an image)
- (photography) zoom lens (lens whose focal length can be rapidly changed)