zone
Pluralzones
Pluralzones
- 1An area, real or virtual, marked off from those around it by a particular use, feature, or restriction.
The downtown streets became a pedestrian zone after years of debate.
Biologists fenced off a protection zone around the nesting beach.
UsageUsually after a word naming the rule or use: a no-smoking zone, a loading zone, a war zone.
- 2
- 3To officially designate the property use classification of an area, such as residential, commercial, or industrial.
The council voted to zone the waterfront for mixed-use development.
Decades ago, the county zoned most of its land for single-family housing.
UsageOften passive with for: land is zoned for housing, industry or mixed use.
Similardesignate, classify, earmark
Note
The verb implies an official act rather than an informal division. That official force is what separates it from the general dividing verb. It also explains why zoning disputes end up before councils.
- 4To divide something into areas or sections, or to assign something to a particular one.
Park managers zone the reserve to separate campers from sensitive habitats.
The warehouse team zoned the shelves by product category last quarter.
UsageOften zone off an area, or zone a place into sections (food, rides, parking).
- 5In baseball, the strike zone: the area above home plate through which a pitch must pass to be called a strike.
He worked the edges of the zone and struck out nine.
Umpires vary in how generously they call the zone on low pitches.
Note
Baseball talk clips strike zone to its last word, so a pitch lands just outside the zone or on the edge of the zone. The short form is informal but routine in commentary. Keep it apart from the peak-performance phrase: a pitch is in or out of the zone, while a player is "in the zone".
- 6Each of the five regions into which the earth's surface was traditionally divided by climate.
Ancient geographers believed the torrid zone was too hot for human life.
The expedition's route ran from the temperate zone into the frigid zone of the far north.
Note
Arthur Golding's 1567 Metamorphoses and Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy use the scheme as plain science. In George Bancroft's History of the United States, commerce that "invades every zone" is already half figurative. Today the sense survives mainly in the set names torrid, temperate and frigid zone.
- 7Any of the three sections of an ice hockey rink (defensive, neutral, and attacking) separated by the two blue lines.
The defenseman finally cleared the puck out of his own zone under heavy pressure.
Linesmen watch the blue line to judge when the puck has fully left the zone.
Note
Hockey names the three zones from each team's point of view. One team's attacking zone is the other team's defensive zone, and the neutral zone lies between the blue lines. Those lines decide the offside rule: players are generally offside if they enter the attacking zone ahead of the puck.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The zones are named relative to each team: one team's attacking zone is the other's defensive zone, with the neutral zone between the blue lines. en.wikipedia.org
- The blue lines determine entry into the attacking zone for offside purposes. iihf.com
- There are exceptions. Under IIHF Rule 83.1, a player with possession and control of the puck with their stick before both skates cross the blue line may enter ahead of it. blob.iihf.com
Less common meanings
- 8A mental state of intense concentration in which someone performs especially well.
The pitcher entered the zone in the fourth inning and retired twelve straight batters.
Deadlines push some writers into a zone where paragraphs seem to write themselves.
UsageUsually in the phrase in the zone, with be or get: she was in the zone.
Similargroove
Note
Sports gave the language its favorite phrase for peak performance: in the zone, as in "I just got in the zone late in the game." Keep it distinct from the strike zone, where the word names a place over the plate rather than a state of mind.
- 9To drift temporarily into a daydreaming or dozing state, often from boredom, fatigue, or intoxication.
Halfway through the budget meeting I began to zone and lost the thread entirely.
He zoned on the couch after his double shift, staring at nothing.
UsageZone out is the more common form: I zoned out in the meeting. Nothing follows it as an object.
Oppositefocus, concentrate
Note
Byron Coley's 1996 liner notes for Thurston Moore's Piece for Jetsun Dolma use the verb on its own, without out, in loose, conversational prose.
- 10A defensive scheme in which defenders guard a particular area of the court or field rather than a specific opposing player.
Syracuse frustrated shooters all season with its trademark 2-3 zone.
The quarterback read the zone and hit the receiver in a soft spot between defenders.
Note
Coaches set it against man-to-man defense, in which each defender follows one opponent. Zones are named by their alignment, as in basketball's 2-3 zone. An offense is said to read or attack the zone, looking for the soft spots between defenders. The word also works as a modifier, as in zone defense.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Zone defense contrasts with man-to-man defense, which assigns each defender an opposing player. hillshornets.com.au
- Basketball zone defenses are named by their alignment, including the 2-3 zone. en.wikipedia.org
- An offense attacks a zone by exploiting gaps between defenders. fiba.basketball
- 11A band, stripe, or ring that runs around something, such as a colored band on an animal or a growth ring in a tree.
A pale zone encircles the snake just behind its head.
Astronomers mapped the bright zones that band Jupiter's atmosphere.
- 12A named set of computers, printers, or other devices treated as a group within an obsolete AppleTalk network.
The Chooser listed every zone on the campus network before showing the available printers.
Back when the office ran AppleTalk, each department's Macs and printers sat in a zone named after that department.
Note
A relic of early Apple networking. AppleTalk zones grouped devices logically rather than by physical wiring, so a department's printers could share a zone wherever they sat. The protocol is obsolete and the sense is dated. It now turns up mainly in accounts of older office and campus networks.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- AppleTalk belongs to early Apple networking. en.wikipedia.org
- AppleTalk zones grouped devices logically across physical network segments. cisco.com
- A department's printers could share a zone despite being in different physical locations within the network. web.mit.edu
- AppleTalk is obsolete. kaas.hpcloud.hp.com
- 13The marked goal area in front of each goal in handball, bounded by two quarter circles joined by a straight line.
- 14The complete set of DNS records covering a domain and its subdomains, excluding any subdomains assigned to another authority.
- 15The curved surface of the portion of a sphere lying between two parallel planes.
- 16A frustum of a sphere; the solid portion of a sphere contained between two parallel planes.
- 17A set of crystal faces or planes whose mutual intersections are all parallel to a common direction.
- 18A belt or girdle worn around the body.
- 19A circuit or circumference; the complete course or boundary line that runs around something.
And we have yet large day; for scarce the sun / Hath finish'd half his journey, and scarce begins / His other half in the great zone of heaven.
1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost
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Practice
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Origin
Ancient Greek ζώνη (zṓnē), meaning "girdle" or "belt," passed into Latin as zōna and from there into English.