zone

UK/zəʊn//zoʊn/

zone noun: each of the five regions of the earth's surface into which it was divided by climatic differences, namely the torrid zone (between the tropics), two temperate zones (between the tropics and the polar circles), and two frigid zones (within the polar circles).

Noun

zone (plural zones)

(archaic) Each of the five regions of the earth's surface into which it was divided by climatic differences, namely the torrid zone (between the tropics), two temperate zones (between the tropics and the polar circles), and two frigid zones (within the polar circles).
- And as two Zones doe cut the Heaven upon the righter side, / And other twaine upon the left likewise the same devide, / The middle in outragious heat exceeding all the rest: / Even so likewise through great foresight to God it seemed best, / The earth encluded in the same should so devided bee […].1567, Ovid, translated by Arthur Golding, Metamorphoses, section I
- To avoid which, we will take any pains […]; we will dive to the bottom of the sea, to the bowels of the earth, five, six, seven, eight, nine hundred fathom deep, through all five zones, and both extremes of heat and cold […].1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition I, section...
Any given region or area of the world.
A given area distinguished on the basis of a particular characteristic, use, restriction, etc.
- There is a no-smoking zone that extends 25 feet outside of each entrance.
- The white zone is for loading and unloading only.
Synonyms:

area, belt, district, region, section, sector, sphere, territory
(broadly) A restricted category or virtual place.
- The discussion was veering off into a danger zone.
A band or area of growth encircling anything.
- a zone of evergreens on a mountain
- the zone of animal or vegetable life in the ocean around an island or a continent
A band or stripe extending around a body.
A series of planes having mutually parallel intersections.
(informal) The strike zone.
- That pitch was low and away, just outside the zone.
Every of the three parts of an ice rink, divided by two blue lines.
- Players are off side, if they enter the attacking zone before the puck.
A semicircular area in front of each goal.
- The defender playing at the top of the zone is nine to fourteen metres out from the goal line.1974, Franko Blazic with Zorko Soric, Team Handball, page 31
Synonyms:

crease
(figuratively) A mental state of high concentration and performance; see: in the zone.
- I just got in the zone late in the game: everything was going in.
A defensive scheme where defenders guard a particular area of the court or field, as opposed to a particular opposing player.

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That collection of a domain's DNS resource records, the domain and its subdomains, that are not delegated to another authority.
(dated) A logical group of network devices on AppleTalk (an obsolete networking protocol).
(literary) A belt or girdle.
- 17th c, John Dryden, 2005, Pygmalion and the Statue, Paul Hammond, David Hopkins (editors), The Poems of John Dryden: Volume Five: 1697-1700, page 263,
  Her tapered fingers too with rings are graced, / And an embroidered zone surrounds her slender waist.
- […] Or should she, confident, / As sitting queen adored on beauty's throne, / Descend with all her winning charms begirt / To enamour, as the zone of Venus once / Wrought that effect on Jove, so fables tell : / How would one look from his majestic brow, / Seated as on the top of virtue's hill, /...1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
The curved surface of a frustum of a sphere, the portion of surface of a sphere delimited by parallel planes.
- To find the surface of a spherical zone.
- Rule.—Multiply the altitude of the zone by the circumference of a great circle of the sphere, and the product will be the surface (Book VIII. Prop. X. Sch. 1).1835, Charles Davies, David Brewster (editors and translators), Adrien-Marie Legendre, Elements of Geometry and Trigonometry, [1794, Eléments de géométrie], page 293
(broadly, perhaps by meronymy) A frustum of a sphere.
A circuit; a circumference.
- 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, Book V, lines 558 to 560

Verb

zone (third-person singular simple present zones, present participle zoning, simple past and past participle zoned)

(transitive) To divide into or assign to sections or areas.
- Please zone off our staging area, a section for each group.
- The high-level process is to shut down the server, unzone the server from Generation 2, zone the server to Gen3, and then define and activate the data-migration (DM) volumes between the Generation 2 and Gen3.2018, Bertrand Dufrasne, Christian Burns, Wenzel Kalabza, IBM XIV Storage System Business Continuity Functions, page 331
(transitive) To define the property use classification of (an area).
- This area was zoned for industrial use.
(intransitive, slang) To enter a daydream state temporarily, for instance as a result of boredom, fatigue, or intoxication; to doze off.
- I must have zoned while he was giving us the directions.
- Everyone just put their goddamn heads together and zoned.1996, Byron Coley, liner notes for the album "Piece for Jetsun Dolma" (1996) by Thurston Moore)
Synonyms:

zone out
(archaic, poetic, transitive) To girdle or encircle.
To assign to a restricted category.
- We've zoned each other as friends; we'll never be anything more.

zone meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

zone in Hindi

area distinguished on the basis of a particular characteristic etc: मंडल maṇḍal, क्षेत्र kṣetra
to divide or assign areas: मंडल maṇḍal
to define property use classification: खंड khaṇḍ

zone in Tamil

வட்டாரம், மண்டலம், ஒதுக்கப்பட்ட ஒரு பகுதி

zone in Urdu

area distinguished on the basis of a particular characteristic etc: عِلاقَہ 'ilāqa, زون zon

zone in Bengali

মণ্ডল, বলয়, মেখলা, পরিবেষ্টন করা

More languagesFewer languages

zone in Telugu: మేఖల mēkhala
zone in Malayalam: സോൺ sōṇ, മേഖല mēkhala
zone in Kannada: ಪ್ರಾಂತ, ಪ್ರದೇಶ, ವಲಯ, ಕ್ಷೇತ್ರ
zone in Punjabi: ਜ਼ੋਨ zon, ਖੰਡ khaṇḍ
zone in Gujarati: ઝોન
zone in Odia: ଜୋନ୍
zone in Sanskrit: वलय valaya, कटक kaṭaka, मेखला mékhalā
zone in Arabic: نِطَاق niṭāq, مِنْطَقَة minṭaqa, مَنْطِقَة, يسهو
zone in Malay: zon, zona, kawasan
zone in Indonesian: zona, kawasan
zone in Thai: โซน soon, เขต kèet, ภาค pâak
zone in Vietnamese: khu vực

Examples of zone in a sentence

Files in the Internet zone are blocked by default, as a security measure.
And while idle curiosity may take its walk in shady avenues by the ocean side, commerce[…]defies every wind, outrides every tempest, and invades every zone.1841, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, volume 2, page 270:
Some of the lagoons, said to have subterranean outlets, have no visible ones; the inclosing island, in such cases, being a complete zone of emerald.1847 March 30, Herman Melville, Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas; […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC:
From the waiſt downwards, they wore a looſe robe, girt with an embroidered zone or belt about the middle, with a large claſp of gold, and a precious ſtone.1779, Thomas Forrest, A Voyage to New Guinea and the Moluccas from Balambangan, page 21:

All 40 example sentences with zone

Synonyms of zone

1 more synonymsFewer synonyms

doze off

All synonyms of zone

Forms of zone

Noun
plural	zones
Verb
third-person singular present	zones
present participle	zoning
past participle	zoned
past	zoned

Past tense of zone: zoned

Plural of zone: zones

Origin of zone

From Latin zōna, from Ancient Greek ζώνη (zṓnē, “girdle, belt”). Doublet of zona.

Phrases with zone

143 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with zone

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about zone

What does zone mean?: Zone means each of the five regions of the earth's surface into which it was divided by climatic differences, namely the torrid zone (between the tropics), two temperate zones (between the tropics and the polar circles), and two frigid zones (within the polar circles).
What is zone in Hindi?: Zone in Hindi is मंडल (maṇḍal), क्षेत्र (kṣetra), खंड (khaṇḍ). See Zone meaning in Hindi.
How do you use zone in a sentence?: Files in the Internet zone are blocked by default, as a security measure.
What part of speech is zone?: Zone can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce zone?: Zone is pronounced /zoʊn/ (US).
What is the plural of zone?: The plural of zone is zones.

Words near zone in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: zone (page history and authors); zone (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); zone (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); మేఖల (Telugu) (page history and authors); മേഖല (Malayalam) (page history and authors); zone (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); zone (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); zone (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); कटक (Sanskrit) (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: 2026-09-02

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

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