FreeScrabbleDictionary

zeal

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
13
Words With Friends
14
Letters
4
Pronunciation
/ziːl/ (UK)
See all 2 pronunciations
/ziːl/ (UK) · /zil/ (US)

Definition of zeal

3 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

noun

  1. (countable, uncountable)The fervour or tireless devotion for a person, cause, or ideal and determination in its furtherance; diligent enthusiasm; powerful interest.
    “She extols the virtues of veganism with missionary zeal.”
    “I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.”
    “Zeal, the blind conductor of the will”
    “[…] the highest zeal in religion and the deepest hypocrisy, so far from being inconsistent, are often or commonly united in the same individual character.”
    “[He] would begin admiring her drawings with so much zeal and so little knowledge as seemed terribly like a would-be lover,”
See all 3 definitions

noun

  1. (countable, uncountable)The fervour or tireless devotion for a person, cause, or ideal and determination in its furtherance; diligent enthusiasm; powerful interest.
    “She extols the virtues of veganism with missionary zeal.”
    “I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.”
    “Zeal, the blind conductor of the will”
    “[…] the highest zeal in religion and the deepest hypocrisy, so far from being inconsistent, are often or commonly united in the same individual character.”
    “[He] would begin admiring her drawings with so much zeal and so little knowledge as seemed terribly like a would-be lover,”
  2. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)A person who exhibits such fervour or tireless devotion.
    “[…] like a malicious purblinde zeale as thou art!”
    “[…] there are questionlesse both in Greeke, Roman and Africa Churches, solemnities, and ceremonies, whereof the wiser zeales doe make a Christian use, and stand condemned by us;”
  3. (collective, countable, uncountable)A group of zebras.
    “A zeal of zebras confuses predators. Each zebra has a different set of stripes.”
    “Zebras can also be called a herd or a zeal.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From Middle English zele, from Old French zel, from Late Latin zēlus, from Ancient Greek ζῆλος (zêlos, “zeal, jealousy”), from Proto-Indo-European *yeh₂- (“to search”). Related to jealous.

Anagrams of zeal

4 plays · some not in Scrabble

Best play laze 13 points

Words you can make from zeal

8 playable · top: LAZE (13 pts)

Best play laze 13 points

3-letter words

2 words

2-letter words

5 words

Hooks

1 extension · 1 back

A single letter you can add to zeal to make another valid word.

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