40 Zesty Z-Words To Add To Your Vocabulary

It might be one of the least-frequently used letters in the English language (you can expect it to start less than 0.5 percent of the words in a standard dictionary), but the letter Z is responsible for some fantastic words, from zaptieh (that’s a Turkish police officer) and zardozi (a type of embroidery using metallic thread) to zambomba (a Spanish percussion instrument) and zalambdodont (a creature with V-shaped ridged molar teeth).

As great as those words are, they’re not exactly the most useful of Z-words to drop into everyday conversation (depending, of course, on how many people with V-shaped molars you know). So why not try using one of the 40 zazzy Z-words listed here? 

1. Zabernism

Zabernism is a German-origin word for the overuse or unnecessarily aggressive use of military power. To zabernize, meanwhile, is to oppress militarily. Both words are named for the town of Saverne in Alsace, eastern France, where a young cobbler was needlessly killed by a German soldier in 1912.

2. Zack

An old southern English dialect word meaning “to walk hesitantly.” (It's also Aussie slang for a sixpence.)

3. Zaftig

Borrowed into English from Yiddish (and descended from a German word meaning “juicy”), zaftig refers to a woman who is plump or curvaceous. 

4. Zaggle

To “confuse by contradictory assertions,” according to the English Dialect Dictionary.

5. Zam

An old southwest English dialect word meaning “to heat something over a fire for a long time, but not to boil it.”

6. Zanyism

Zanyism is literally the behavior or quality of being “zany” or clownish—or, in other words, horseplay or tomfoolery.

7. Zarnder

Zarnder was a hairstyle, popular in the 1900s, in which a woman wore loose ringlet of hair over one shoulder. It derives from a slang corruption of the name of Queen Alexandra, the wife and consort of King Edward VII. She popularized the style.

8. Zawn

An isolated sandy inlet or cave in a cliff on the coast is a zawn.

9. Zawster

An old 18th-century word for a seamstress or dressmaker.

10. Zazzy

Slang from the 1960s for something showy or colorful. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests it might be a combination of “zippy” and “jazzy.”

11. Zef

A South African slang word describing anything trashy or commonplace. It derives from the name of the Ford Zephyr, a car apparently once popular among working-class South Africans.

12. Zeitgeber

If zeitgeist literally means “time spirit” in German, then a zeitgeber is literally a “time-giver.” In biology, it refers to any cyclical, recurring event, like the changing of the seasons or the rising and setting of the sun, that provides an organism with a natural timeframe or cue.

13. Zelatrix

A zelatrix is a female zelator—namely, a zealous supporter or advocate.

14. Zelotypia

Derived from the Greek word for “to strike,” zelotypia is a 17th-century word for what we would now more likely call jealousy.

15. Zeugma

A figure of speech in which one word is used in such a way that it refers to two others in the same sentence is called a zeugma (which is the Greek word for a yoke, in the sense of two things being linked together as one). Dickens was the master of the zeugma, thanks to fantastically descriptive sentences like “Miss Bolo rose from the table considerably agitated, and went straight home, in a flood of tears and a sedan-chair.”

16. Zidle-Mouthed

If you’re zidle-mouthed then you’re wry-mouthed, or habitually hold your mouth to one side in a curious, indecisive fashion.

17. Ziff

No one quite knows why, or where the word came from, but ziff is an old Australian slang word for a beard.

18. Zigzaggery

A zigzagging course or route? That’s a zigzaggery.

19. Zinziberaceous

Also spelled zingiberaceous, the adjective zinziberaceous specifically refers to plants in the Zinziberaceae family—or, in other words, it’s a fancy way of saying “gingery.”

20. Zitella

Derived from Italian, zitella is a 17th-century word for a young girl or maiden.

21. Zizz

As a noun, zizz is sparkle or vivacity, whereas as a verb, it can be used to mean “to enliven.”

22. Zneesy

An 18th-century slang word for cold, frosty weather. No one is quite sure where it comes from, but it may have been partly influenced by sneezy.

23. Zoanthropy

The name of a kind of insanity in which a person believes that they’re an animal. It’s related to lycanthropy, a formal name for werewolfism.

24. Zob

Early 1900s slang for a fool or a simpleton.

25. Zog

A local English word for soft, boggy land or marshland.

26. Zoilist

A zoilist is an unnecessarily harsh or carping critic, and a zoilous person is someone who revels in that kind of criticism. Both words derive from Zoilus, an ancient Greek critic and grammarian who was one of the harshest critics of Homer; Zoilus apparently reveled in his reputation. He used the nickname Homeromastix, or “Homer-whipper.”

27. Zonky

Slang from the 1970s meaning “odd” or “uncanny.” (Don’t confuse it with zonkey, the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.)

28. Zoodikers

Zoodikers, zonkers, zoonters, zooks, and zookers are all old-fashioned exclamations of surprise or amazement, popular from the mid-17th to late-19th centuries. They’re all descended from the earlier expression Gadzooks, which is itself a euphemistic corruption of “God’s hooks,” the nails used to secure Jesus to the cross.

29. Zoographer

An artist that excels at or specializes in drawing animals is a zoographer.

30. Zoophagous

Another word for carnivorousness, zoophagous literally means “animal-eating.”

31. Zoophilous

Zoophilous, meanwhile, means “animal-loving.”

32. Zosteriform

An adjective describing anything shaped like a girdle.

33. Zowerswopped

Grumpy or ill-natured. An old southwest English dialect word.

34. Zuche

A 14th-century word for a tree stump.

35. Zugzwang

In chess, zugzwang—“compulsion to move” in German—refers to a situation in which a player is obliged to move one of their pieces despite it being detrimental or disadvantageous. So, figuratively, it can be used to describe any real-life situation in which a person is compelled to do something unpleasant or injurious.

36. Zwischenzug

Also borrowed from the chess world is zwischenzug—literally an “intermediate move”—in which a player makes an unexpected or seemingly unwise move, either to play for time or to force their opponent to change their tactic, thereby taking more control over the game. In general use, zwischenzug can likewise refer to any interim step or tactic that buys time, or changes the course of events.

37. Zwodder

According to one 19th-century dictionary, a zwodder is “a drowsy and stupid state of mind.” Monday morning, in other words.

38. Zygal

Zygal literally means “shaped like a zygon,” the name of a connecting crossbar-shaped fissure in the brain. More generally, it just means “H-shaped.”

39. Zygopleural

Used chiefly in biological contexts, the word zygopleural describes things that are bilaterally symmetrical—or in other words, the left and right sides are reflected, like a butterfly.

40. Zymurgy

A formal name for the process of fermentation, or for the production of beer or wine.

A version of this story ran in 2016; it has been updated for 2022.