# zone

Pronunciation: say "ZOHN" US /zoʊn/, UK /zəʊn/

## Noun

1. An area, real or virtual, marked off from those around it by a particular use, feature, or restriction.
   - Simple: An area set apart from others by its use, its rules, or a special feature.
   - _The downtown streets became a pedestrian zone after years of debate._
   - _Biologists fenced off a protection zone around the nesting beach._
2. A large area or part of the world.
   - Simple: Any large area or part of the world.
   - _Monsoon rains sweep across the southern zone of the continent every summer._
   - _Trade routes once connected distant zones of the ancient world._
8. A mental state of intense concentration in which someone performs especially well.
   - Simple: A time when someone plays or works at their very best with full focus.
   - _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._
10. A defensive scheme in which defenders guard a particular area of the court or field rather than a specific opposing player.
   - Simple: A way of defending where each player guards an area instead of one player from the other team.
   - _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._
5. In baseball, the strike zone: the area above home plate through which a pitch must pass to be called a strike. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: In baseball, the space over home plate where a pitch counts as 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._
6. Each of the five regions into which the earth's surface was traditionally divided by climate.
   - Simple: One of five big bands of the earth's surface, sorted by how hot or cold they are.
   - _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._
7. Any of the three sections of an ice hockey rink (defensive, neutral, and attacking) separated by the two blue lines.
   - Simple: One of the three parts of a hockey rink, marked off by 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._
11. A band, stripe, or ring that runs around something, such as a colored band on an animal or a growth ring in a tree.
   - Simple: A band or ring of color or growth that goes all the way around something.
   - _A pale zone encircles the snake just behind its head._
   - _Astronomers mapped the bright zones that band Jupiter's atmosphere._

## Verb

3. To officially designate the property use classification of an area, such as residential, commercial, or industrial.
   - Simple: To set official rules about how land in an area can be used.
   - _The council voted to zone the waterfront for mixed-use development._
   - _Decades ago, the county zoned most of its land for single-family housing._
4. To divide something into areas or sections, or to assign something to a particular one.
   - Simple: To split something into areas, or to put something in one of those areas.
   - _Park managers zone the reserve to separate campers from sensitive habitats._
   - _The warehouse team zoned the shelves by product category last quarter._
9. To drift temporarily into a daydreaming or dozing state, often from boredom, fatigue, or intoxication. *(slang)*
   - Simple: To stop paying attention for a short time and drift into a daydream or light sleep.
   - _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._

## Noun

12. A named set of computers, printers, or other devices treated as a group within an obsolete AppleTalk network. *(dated)*
   - Simple: A named group of computers and printers on an old Apple 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._

## Other meanings

- (noun) The marked goal area in front of each goal in handball, bounded by two quarter circles joined by a straight line.
- (noun) The complete set of DNS records covering a domain and its subdomains, excluding any subdomains assigned to another authority.
- (noun) The curved surface of the portion of a sphere lying between two parallel planes.
- (noun) A frustum of a sphere; the solid portion of a sphere contained between two parallel planes.
- (noun) A set of crystal faces or planes whose mutual intersections are all parallel to a common direction.
- (noun) A belt or girdle worn around the body.
- (noun) A circuit or circumference; the complete course or boundary line that runs around something.

## Origin

Ancient Greek ζώνη (zṓnē), meaning "girdle" or "belt," passed into Latin as zōna and from there into English.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/zone (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).