39 Adjectives That Start With Z

Z is the last letter and one of the emptiest, and what it does hold splits cleanly in two. There is a small run of everyday words about energy and speed — zany, zesty, zippy, zingy — and then a long tail of Greek and Latin technical vocabulary built on zoo- for animal, zym- for fermentation and zyg- for a yoke or a pairing.

This page lists 39 adjectives that start with Z, each with its meaning. Every one was checked for an adjective entry of its own in Merriam-Webster or Oxford, by reading the part-of-speech markup rather than trusting the page to load. Fifteen candidates failed that check and are not here: some were variant spellings of a different headword (zinky for zincky, zoophilous for zoophilic), some were verb forms (zapped), one was a noun only (zibeline, a fabric), five were in neither dictionary, and three — zygotic, zestless and zeolitic — appear in Merriam-Webster only as bare run-ons under a noun, with no definition of their own.

10 of the 39 carry a usage label a dictionary prints, and 3 rest on Merriam-Webster’s medical dictionary rather than its general one, which their entries say. Oxford Learner’s carries 15 of these words as adjectives; the other 24 are Merriam-Webster’s alone.

Proper adjectives are left out on purpose. Zambian, Zimbabwean and Zoroastrian are formed from names rather than from the language’s own stock, and counting them would inflate this letter without teaching anyone a word.

All 39 adjectives at a glance

zaftig, zany, zealotic, zealous, zebrine, zebroid, zen, zenithal, zephyrean, zero, zero-sum, zeroth, zestful, zesty, zigzag, zincic, zincky, zingy, zip-up, zippered, zippy, zodiacal, zonal, zonary, zonate, zoned, zonked, zonular, zoological, zoometric, zoomorphic, zoonotic, zoophagous, zoophilic, zygodactyl, zygomatic, zygomorphic, zymogenic, zymotic

Describing a person

The part of the letter you can actually use about someone. Read zaftig‘s entry before reaching for it — Merriam-Webster attaches an unusual caution to its own definition, and it is quoted there.

Adjective	What it means
zaftig	of a woman, having a full rounded figure (informal, North American) — Worth knowing: Merriam-Webster adds a caution of its own: even though most dictionaries define it as implying attractiveness, people to whom it might apply may not appreciate its use.
zany	very eccentric or absurd, often in an amusing way (informal)
zealotic	resembling or suited to a zealot; ardent to the point of partisanship
zealous	filled with zeal; fervently committed to a person, a cause or an ideal (formal)
zen	of or suggesting the teachings of Zen Buddhism; also calm and unbothered by what would rattle other people (Merriam-Webster capitalises the headword; the calm sense is usually written lowercase)
zonked	stupefied by drink or drugs; also completely exhausted (slang; not before a noun)

Energy and enthusiasm

Four words that all mean roughly liveliness, and the reason Z feels like a letter of speed. Oxford marks zingy and zippy informal and leaves zestful and zesty unlabelled — so only the first two carry a warning against using them in a formal report.

Adjective	What it means
zestful	full of zest, and marked by keen enjoyment
zesty	lively and appealingly sharp; of a taste or smell, fresh and tangy
zingy	enjoyably exciting, with a bit of edge to it (informal)
zippy	full of zip; quick, speedy and lively (informal)

Everyday and descriptive

The workaday section, and the one most readers came for. Zero is the important word here: it is a full adjective in its own right — zero growth, zero tolerance — and by a distance the most used adjective in this letter.

Adjective	What it means
zero	amounting to none at all, as in zero growth or zero tolerance; of a cloud ceiling, limiting vision to fifty feet or less
zero-sum	of a situation in which one side can gain only what the other loses
zeroth	coming before the first in a series, and numbered nought — Worth knowing: Coined by physicists about 120 years ago, and now often used to suggest a rank higher than first rather than lower.
zigzag	having a series of short sharp turns from one side to the other (used before a noun)
zip-up	having or fastened by a zip (only before a noun; especially British)
zippered	fitted with a zip
zoned	divided into areas set aside for a particular use; also, of a person, not thinking clearly because of a drug (informal, North American in the ‘not thinking clearly’ sense) — Worth knowing: One of the few words here that Oxford carries and Merriam-Webster does not: MW’s page shows an adjective, but it belongs to the headword zone.

Animals and nature

The zoo- family, from the Greek for animal. Zoonotic is the one that stopped being technical: five years of pandemic coverage put it in front of everybody.

Adjective	What it means
zebrine	relating to or resembling a zebra, especially in its markings
zebroid	related to or resembling a zebra
zonate	marked with rings or bands
zoological	concerned with zoology, the study of animals
zoomorphic	having the form of an animal; of a god, shown in animal shape
zoonotic	of a disease that can pass from animals to humans (specialist)
zoophagous	feeding on animals; carnivorous (medical dictionary only)
zoophilic	of an organism, preferring animals as its hosts
zygodactyl	having two toes pointing forward and two back, as a woodpecker or a parrot does
zygomorphic	of a flower, divisible into matching halves along one plane only

Science, medicine and the technical

The long tail, kept to the end so it can be skipped. Several of these do reach ordinary readers by a specific route — zygomatic in a dental report, zonular in a cataract letter, zymotic on a Victorian death certificate.

Adjective	What it means
zenithal	at or near the zenith; of a map, showing directions correctly from its centre
zephyrean	of or like a zephyr, a soft gentle breeze
zincic	relating to, containing or resembling zinc
zincky	having the appearance of zinc
zodiacal	of or lying within the zodiac
zonal	relating to a zone, or shaped like one (specialist)
zonary	of a placenta, with its villi arranged in a band (same sense as zonal)
zonular	relating to an anatomical zone, or to the ring of fibres holding the lens of the eye (medical dictionary only)
zoometric	designed for measuring animals, especially for estimating bulk from a single measurement
zygomatic	of or in the region of the cheekbone and the arch that supports it
zymogenic	producing fermentation, or drawing energy from it
zymotic	caused by or relating to fermentation; in older use, of an infectious disease (medical dictionary only) — Worth knowing: The word Victorian death certificates used for infectious disease, which is where most people meet it now.

The ten that do the most work

zero — a full adjective, not just a number, and the most used word in the letter
zealous — committed to the point of fervour, and Oxford marks it formal
zany — eccentric and amusing with it, which no shorter word manages
zoonotic — passing from animals to humans, and no longer specialist vocabulary
zesty — sharp and lively, of a flavour or of anything else
zero-sum — one side gains only what the other loses, and the phrase does real work in argument
zonked — exhausted or stupefied, and the bluntest word here
zigzag — short sharp turns, and the only Z word most people draw before they write
zeroth — numbered before the first, coined by physicists and now used to mean more important than first
zoomorphic — shaped like an animal, and the word museum captions reach for constantly

Words people get wrong

Pair	The difference that matters
zero / zeroth	Zero is none at all. Zeroth is the position before the first, and its history is the interesting part: Merriam-Webster says physicists coined it about a hundred and twenty years ago — its own first-known-use date is earlier — and that it is now frequently used to suggest a level of importance higher than first — which is how the zeroth law of thermodynamics got its name, having been recognised as more fundamental than the three laws already numbered.
zonal / zonular	Both come from zone and they are not interchangeable. Zonal is the general one, marked specialist by Oxford — zonal marking in football, zonal soils. Zonular is anatomical and appears in Merriam-Webster’s medical dictionary rather than its general one: it means relating to an anatomical zone, and in practice to the ring of fibres that holds the lens of the eye. If you have had a cataract assessment you may have been handed it.
zoophagous / zoophilic	One eats animals and the other likes them. Zoophagous means feeding on animals — carnivorous, in Merriam-Webster’s own gloss. Zoophilic means drawn to animals, and in medical use describes an organism that prefers an animal host. Note the spelling: zoophilous is a variant that Merriam-Webster files under zoophilic, so the shorter form is the headword.
zymotic / zoonotic	Two words for how disease travels, a century apart. Zymotic is the Victorian one: it meant an infectious disease, on the old theory that infection worked like fermentation, and it is where most people meet it — written on a nineteenth-century death certificate. Zoonotic is the modern one, for a disease that passes from animals to humans, and Oxford marks it specialist although the last few years have made it ordinary.
zebrine / zebroid	Both mean zebra-like and Merriam-Webster carries both, which is unusual enough to be worth flagging rather than papering over with an invented distinction. Zebrine leans on the markings — its definition mentions suggesting a zebra especially in marking. Zebroid is the plainer of the two, simply related to or resembling a zebra. Neither dictionary separates them any more firmly than that.

Adjectives for a zoo — where the zoo- half of this letter belongs.
Adjectives for a zombie — the other Z subject, and a livelier vocabulary than this one.
Adjectives for animals — the wider list, most of which is not Z.
Adjectives for energy — for what zingy and zippy are reaching at.
Adjectives for science — where the technical tail of this page is at home.
Adjectives that start with Y — the letter before, and the only one nearly as small.