zeal
UK/ziːl//zil/
zeal noun: the fervour or tireless devotion for a person, cause, or ideal and determination in its furtherance; diligent enthusiasm; powerful interest.
Noun (1)
zeal (countable and uncountable, plural zeals)
- 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.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Romans 10:2
- A person who exhibits such fervour or tireless devotion.
- […] like a malicious purblinde zeale as thou art!1614, Ben Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, London: Robert Allot, act v, scene 5, page 85
- […] 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;1642, Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, London: Andrew Crooke, page 5
- Synonyms:
- zealot
- A group of zebras.
- A zeal of zebras confuses predators. Each zebra has a different set of stripes.2012, Alex Kuskowski, Zeal of Zebras: Animal Groups on an African Safari, →ISBN, page 8
- Zebras can also be called a herd or a zeal.2019 June 6, “A gaggle, a confusion and a conspiracy - bizarre animal collective group names”, in BBC, archived from the original on 01 Apr 2021
Noun (2)
zeal (uncountable)
zeal meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
zeal in Hindi
- zeal, josh, passion
- फुरहरी phurahrī, फुरेरी phurerī
zeal in Tamil
- பற்றார்வக் கிளர்ச்சி, ஆர்வச் சுறுசுறுப்பு, விருப்பார்வம், உற்சாகம், சிரத்தை, ஆர்வம்
zeal in Urdu
- zeal, earnestness, eagerness
- سرگرمی sargarmī
- zeal
- اشتیاق iśtiyāq
zeal in Bengali
- zeal, effort, striving
- যত্ন jotno
More languagesFewer languages
- zeal in Telugu
- ఉత్సుకత utsukata
- zeal in Malayalam
- ഔത്സുക്യം autsukyaṁ
- zeal in Kannada
- ಹುರುಪು, ಉತ್ಸಾಹ, ಸಂಭ್ರಮ, ಅತಿಶ್ರದ್ಧೆ
- zeal in Punjabi
- ਧੁਨ dhun
- zeal in Gujarati
- શોખ śŏkh
- zeal in Sanskrit
- उत्साह utsāha
- zeal in Arabic
- حَمَاس ḥamās, جُهْد juhd
- zeal in Persian
- شوق šowq, غِیرَت ġeyrat, تَعَصُّب ta'assob
Examples of zeal in a sentence
- […] the highest zeal in religion and the deepest hypocrisy, so far from being inconsistent, are often or commonly united in the same individual character.1779, David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, part 12, pages 143–144:
- [He] would begin admiring her drawings with so much zeal and so little knowledge as seemed terribly like a would-be lover,1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter 14, in Emma: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Charles...
- The stockman’s zeal for eliminating the coyote has resulted in plagues of field mice, which the coyote formerly controlled.1962, Rachel Carson, chapter 15, in Silent Spring, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 248:
- These three were a part of a zeal of 30 zebras.2021 October 15, Julia Craven, “Everything We Know About the Maryland Zebras On the Run”, in Slate.com, archived from the original on 26...
Synonyms of zeal
Antonyms
Forms of zeal
| plural | zeals |
|---|
Origin of zeal
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.
Words that rhyme with zeal
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- keel
- anneal
- creel
- peal
- peel
- sweal
- congeal
- Izmail
- kneel
- meal
- Neale
- streal
- weal
- awheel
- Castile
- cochineal
- feal
- heal
- Lille
- ordeal
- repeal
- sele
- squeal
- teal
- ceil
- debile
- dishabille
- hele
- leal
- lifesteal
- Neil
- Niel
- O'Neill
- reveal
- schlemiel
- seel
- she'll
- shiel
- skeel
- spiel
- square meal
- unseal
- veal
- we'll
- weel
- ye'll
- -meal
- allele
Questions about zeal
- What does zeal mean?
- Zeal means the fervour or tireless devotion for a person, cause, or ideal and determination in its furtherance; diligent enthusiasm; powerful interest.
- What is zeal in Hindi?
- Zeal in Hindi is फुरहरी (phurahrī), फुरेरी (phurerī). See Zeal meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use zeal in a sentence?
- […] the highest zeal in religion and the deepest hypocrisy, so far from being inconsistent, are often or commonly united in the same individual character.
- What part of speech is zeal?
- Zeal is a noun.
- How do you pronounce zeal?
- Zeal is pronounced /ziːl/ (UK).
- What is the plural of zeal?
- The plural of zeal is zeals.
Words near zeal in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: zeal (page history and authors); फुरहरी (Hindi) (page history and authors); zeal (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); اشتیاق (Urdu) (page history and authors); যত্ন (Bengali) (page history and authors); ఉత్సుకత (Telugu) (page history and authors); ഔത്സുക്യം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); zeal (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਧੁਨ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); શોખ (Gujarati) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-zeal.ogg.
Cite this entry: “zeal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/zeal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.