Word.ws English Dictionary

in the zone

in the zone prepositional phrase: in a mental state of focused concentration on the performance of an activity, in which one dissociates oneself from distracting or irrelevant aspects of one's environment.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) In a mental state of focused concentration on the performance of an activity, in which one dissociates oneself from distracting or irrelevant aspects of one's environment.
    • It's when I'm in the zone that I feel by myself, the most vibrantly alone.1999, Ann McCutchan, The Muse that Sings: Composers Speak about the Creative Process, page 214
    • Just let yourself play, enjoying all of the feelings and sensations that come when you are in the zone.2000, Donald R. Liggett, Sport Hypnosis, page 15

Examples of in the zone in a sentence

  • Athletes in these circumstances comment on the pain, but often refer to the experience as being "in the zone," a condition of distraction ...2002, Robert C. Scaer, The Body Bears the Burden: Trauma, Dissociation, and Disease, page 94:
  • These elements represent the essential features of optimal performances, which athletes have described as "hot," "in a groove," "on a roll," or "in the zone".2006, Robert Stephen Weinberg, Daniel Gould, Foundations of Sport And Exercise Psychology, page 148:

Synonyms of in the zone

Questions about in the zone

What does in the zone mean?
In the zone means in a mental state of focused concentration on the performance of an activity, in which one dissociates oneself from distracting or irrelevant aspects of one's environment.
How do you use in the zone in a sentence?
Athletes in these circumstances comment on the pain, but often refer to the experience as being "in the zone," a condition of distraction ...
What part of speech is in the zone?
In the zone is a prepositional phrase.

Words near in the zone in the dictionary

  1. in the works
  2. in the world
  3. in the worst way
  4. in the wrong
  5. in the wrong place at the wrong time
  6. in the zone
  7. in theory
  8. in there like swimwear
  9. in this connection
  10. in this day and age
  11. in this essay I will

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: in the zone (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-in the zone.ogg.

Cite this entry: “in the zone.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/in_the_zone. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.