Zoom Meaning
/zuːm/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA humming noise from something moving very fast.
nounA quick ascent.
Sentence Examples
This is the zoom button.
She used a zoom lens.
Double click the map to zoom in on a place.
CEFR Practice Quiz
As the race started, the cars began to ____ past the finish line at high speed.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I had to ____ in on the photo to see the small details of the beautiful and very old several building today.
Word Origin & History
Uncertain. The verb was first attested c. 1892, as a noun in 1918 and as an 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”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"[…] and it was strange sitting in their brand-new comfortable car and hearing them talk of exams as we zoomed smoothly into town."
— 1957, Jack Kerouac, On the Road, Viking Press, →OCLC:
"(Who's zoomin' who?) / Take another look and tell me, baby / (Who's zoomin' who?) / Who's zoomin' who? / (Who's zoomin' who?) / Now the fish jumped off the hook, didn't I, baby? / (Who's zoomin' who?) / Yeah"
— 1985 August 27, Aretha Franklin, Preston Glass, Narada Michael Walden, “Who's Zoomin' Who”, in Who's Zoomin' Who?, performed by Aretha Franklin, track 4:
""It boggles my mind what kind of mentality is at work there." He pointed to two recent issues of the magazine that featured cover stories were about Whitney Houston and Luther Vandross, two pop music icons whose sexual orientations have been widely speculated on in Black lesbian and gay communities. "It makes you wonder if it's an insult to the intelligence of Essence’s lesbian and gay leadership," Cunningham said. "Who's really zooming whom here?""
— 1990 December 16, Chris Nealon, quoting Al Cunningham, “Essence Magazine Agrees To Run Gay Advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 18, number 22, page 13:
"Makowsky was playing the Bassgeige. Zoom... zoom-zoom.... The rest of the orchestra would join in presently."
— 1918, Annie Vivanti Chartres, The Outrage, page 196:
"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."
— 1939, Henry Miller, Tropic of Capricorn, Grove Press, published 1962, page 244:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
As the race started, the cars began to ____ past the finish line at high speed.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I had to ____ in on the photo to see the small details of the beautiful and very old several building today.