zoom

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

zoom

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /zuːm/, enPR: zo͞om

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːm

Etymology 1

Uncertain. The verb was attested in 1892, noun in 1918 and interjection in 1942. Apparently related to Scots soom (“to buzz, hum”), dialectal English and Scots soom, swoom, sweem (“to spin or twirl at high speed”). Compare also dialectal English sweem (“to swoon, become dizzy or faint”).

Noun

zoom (plural zooms)

1. A humming noise from something moving very fast.

   the zoom of traffic

2. (figurative) A quick ascent.
3. (figurative) A big increase.
4. An augmentation of a view, by varying the focal length of a lens, or digitally.

   What's the zoom like on your camera?

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

zoom (third-person singular simple present zooms, present participle zooming, simple past and past participle zoomed)

1. To move fast with a humming noise.

   We zoomed along the highway.

   • 1957, Jack Kerouac, On the Road, Viking Press, →OCLC:

     […] and it was strange sitting in their brand-new comfortable car and hearing them talk of exams as we zoomed smoothly into town.

2. (aviation) To zoom climb.
3. To move rapidly.
4. To go up sharply.

   prices zoomed

5. (photography) To change the focal length of a zoom lens.
6. To manipulate a display so as to magnify or shrink it.

   to zoom in or zoom out

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Dutch: zoomen
• → Finnish: zoomata
• → French: zoomer
• → German: zoomen
• → Italian: zoomare
• → Norwegian Bokmål: zoome

Translations

Interjection

zoom

1. Representing a humming sound
   • 1918, Annie Vivanti Chartres, The Outrage, page 196:

     Makowsky was playing the Bassgeige. Zoom... zoom-zoom.... The rest of the orchestra would join in presently.

2. Suggesting something moving quickly
   • 1939, Henry Miller, Tropic of Capricorn, Grove Press, published 1962, page 244:

     I would dance a few light fantastic steps to show which way the wind lay, and zoom! Like a breeze I was on the piano stool and doing a velocity exercise.

3. Suggesting a sudden change, especially an improvement or an increase

Etymology 2

Genericization of the trademark Zoom, a video teleconferencing software.

Verb

zoom (third-person singular simple present zooms, present participle zooming, simple past and past participle zoomed)

1. To participate in a video teleconferencing call.

Noun

zoom (plural zooms)

1. A video teleconferencing call.
   • 2022 September 27, Barclay Bram, “My Therapist, the Robot”, in The New York Times‎:

     Then, later that day, I logged onto a zoom call and my mother and I set up our yoga mats in the living room, as we had been doing a couple of times a week during the pandemic.

Derived terms

Anagrams

• Mozo, mozo

Dutch

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch sôom, from Old Dutch *sōm, from Proto-West Germanic *saum, from Proto-Germanic *saumaz (“that which is sewn”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /zoːm/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: zoom
• Rhymes: -oːm

Noun

zoom m (plural zomen, diminutive zoompje n)

1. edge, border
2. hem (border of a cloth that is turned around and stitched)

Derived terms

• Bergen op Zoom
• zomen

Descendants

• Negerhollands: soom
• → Caribbean Javanese: sum
• → Indonesian: som

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English zoom.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /zuːm/
• Hyphenation: zoom

Noun

zoom m (plural zooms)

1. zoom (augmentation of a view)

Related terms

• zoomen

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation 1

• IPA^(key): /zoːm/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: zoom
• Rhymes: -oːm

Verb

zoom

1. inflection of zomen:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. imperative

Pronunciation 2

• IPA^(key): /zuːm/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: zoom

Verb

zoom

1. inflection of zoomen:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. imperative

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English zoom.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /zum/

• Audio

  (file)

• Homophone: zooms
• Hyphenation: zoom

Noun

zoom m (plural zooms)

1. (photography) zoom

Derived terms

• zoomer

Further reading

• “zoom”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /zuːm/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

zoom

1. singular imperative of zoomen
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of zoomen

Italian

Italian Wikipedia has an article on:

zoom

Wikipedia ^it

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English zoom.

Noun

zoom m (invariable)

1. (photography) zoom

Related terms

• zoomare
• zoomata

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

zoom

1. imperative of zoome

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• zum (rare)

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English zoom.

Pronunciation

Noun

zoom m (plural zooms)

1. zoom (augmentation of an image)
2. (photography) zoom lens (lens whose focal length can be rapidly changed)

Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English zoom.

Noun

zoom n (plural zoomuri)

1. zoom

Declension

Slovak

Etymology

Borrowed from English zoom.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /zuːm/

Noun

zoom m inan (genitive singular zoomu, declension pattern of dub)

1. (photography) zoom

Declension

Related terms

• zoomový

Spanish

Noun

zoom m (plural zooms)

1. (photography) zoom