From Middle English zed, zedde, zede, from Old French zede, from Late Latin zeta, from Ancient Greek ζῆτα (zêta), from Hebrew ז (zayin) with influence from beta, eta and theta. Letter had rare nonstandard usage in Old English, such as in bezt, where it represented "ts" (compare the German, Italian, and Finnish pronunciation of Z). For the sleep sense, see zzz. The zombie sense comes from the initial letter. Doublet of zeta. Cognate to Spanish zeta, German Zett, French zède, Italian zeta, and perhaps Portuguese zê.

• IPA^(key): /zɛd/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛd

zed (plural zeds) (chiefly Commonwealth, UK, Ireland)

1. The name of the Latin-script letter Z/z.
   • 2021, Pat Manser, More Than Words: The Making of the Macquarie Dictionary, Sydney: Macquarie Dictionary, page 298:

     Zzz...With all those ʻzedsʼ I'll be sending you to sleep.

2. (in combination) Something Z-shaped.

   zed-bar

3. (colloquial, usually in the plural) Sleep.

   I'm going to go get some zeds.

4. (slang) A zombie.

   A horde of zeds began to shuffle into the shopping mall.

• (all): zee (US, Philippines, Newfoundland)
• (letter): izzard (Scotland)
• (sleep): zee (Canada) (more common)

• from A to Zed
• Generation Zed, Gen Zed, Gen Zedder, Gen-Zedder, Zed
• zed-bed
• Zed-car
• zedsexual

• → Greek: ζεντ (zent)
• → Hindi: ज़ेड (zeḍ)
• → Japanese: ゼット (zetto), ゼッド (zeddo)
• → Korean: 제드 (jedeu)
• → Malay: zed
• → Marathi: जेड (jeḍ)
• → Russian: зэд (zɛd)
• → Thai: แซด (sɛ̂t)
• → Welsh: sèd

• (Latin-script letter names) letter; a, bee, cee, dee, e, ef, gee, aitch, i, jay, kay, el, em, en, o, pee, cue, ar, ess, tee, u, vee, double-u, ex, wye, zee / zed

zed (third-person singular simple present zeds, present participle zedding, simple past and past participle zedded) (chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth)

1. (intransitive, informal) To sleep or nap. (Compare zzz, catch some z's.)
   • 1991, Jim Cartwright, Bed:

     Zedding hogs. Sleep sippers and spitters. Look at 'em cooking in their own snoring heat. One nose after another.

   • 1992, David Robins, Tarnished vision: crime and conflict in the inner city:

     I guess I must have zedded, for I find a police officer, the same one that nicked me, shaking me.

   • 2007, Polly Williams, The Yummy Mummy:

     "Zedding away." "God, I was having the most awful dream. That you'd got lost by the sea and I couldn't find you and something was chasing me, me and Evie."

2. (intransitive, rare) To zigzag; to move with sharp alternating turns.
   • 1931, Reginald Rankin, The Collected Works of Lt. Colonel Sir Reginald Rankin:

     We were zedding hell-bells up the hill towards Cervione, with a bank of road metal and a precipice on our left...

   • 1994, Tibor Fischer, The thought gang:

     Licking his lips, his hand zedded on my thigh and he commented, penetratingly, that it wasn't pussy, but that driving the unmade road wasn't at all bad.

• zeta

• DEZ, Dez

From British English zed.

• IPA^(key): /ˈzed/ [ˈzet̪̚]

zéd (plural zed-zed or zed²)

1. The name of the Latin-script letter Z/z.

• zain (Jawi letter name)
• zet (Indonesian)

• (Latin-script letter names) huruf; e, bi, si, di, i, ef, ji, hec, ai, je, ke, el, em, en, o, pi, kiu, ar, es, ti, yu, vi, dabel yu, eks, way, zed

zed

1. (Kent) alternative form of sad

zed

1. alternative form of seed (“seed”)

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *zidъ.

• IPA^(key): (13^th CE) /ˈzɛd/
• IPA^(key): (15^th CE) /ˈzɛt/

zed f

1. wall

• Czech: zeď

• Jan Gebauer (1903–1916), “zed”, in Slovník staročeský (in Czech), Prague: Česká grafická společnost "unie", Česká akademie císaře Františka Josefa pro vědy, slovesnost a umění

From Middle English soden, sode (“seethed”, past participle of sethen), with the vowel taken from other forms of the verb.

• IPA^(key): /zɛd/

zed

1. stewed, sodden
   • 1867, GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY:

     Zed met.

     Stewed meat.

zed

1. alternative form of zide
   • 1867, “CASTEALE CUDDE'S LAMENTATION”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 5, page 104:

     Hea zed mee cuck vlew in a aare.

     He said my cock flew into the air.

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 81 & 104