zebra
zeb·ra/ˈzɛb.ɹə/noun
zebra is spelled Z-E-B-R-A, 2 syllables: zeb·ra. The wrong spelling people search most is zeebra: about 120 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 200 of all searches for the word. Zebra is a noun meaning “Any of three species of subgenus Hippotigris: Equus grevyi, Equus quagga, or Equus zebra, all with black and…”. The plural of zebra is zebras.
How many letters and syllables are in zebra?
| Letters | 5: Z-E-B-R-A |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: zeb·ra |
| In writing | 2.5 times per million words; the 17,122nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, zeebra, about 120 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell zebra?
Zebra is spelled Z-E-B-R-A. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 201 of the searches for zebra in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is zebra?
Zebra appears 2.5 times per million words in written English, the 17,122nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce zebra?
- /ˈzɛb.ɹə/
- /ˈziː.bɹə/
- /ˈziːb.rɑː/
Zebra has 2 syllables, split zeb·ra in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-zebra.ogg, En-us-zebra.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with zebra?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as zebra.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: braze.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of zebra
- zebras plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does zebra mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Any of three species of subgenus Hippotigris: Equus grevyi, Equus quagga, or Equus zebra, all with black and white stripes and native to Africa.
- 2
slangA referee.
- 3
slangAn unlikely diagnosis, especially for symptoms probably caused by a common ailment.
- 4
Someone who has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome or hypermobility spectrum disorder
- 5
derogatoryslangA biracial person, specifically one born to a Sub-Saharan African person and a white person.
- 6
informalA zebra cichlid (Amatitlania nigrofasciata).
- 7
Any of various papilionid butterflies of the subgenus Paranticopsis of the genus Graphium, having black and white markings.
- 8
A zebra crossing.
noun
- 1
radiotelephony clear-code word for the letter Z.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Zebra in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense African animal:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does zebra come from?
First attested in 1600. Borrowed from Italian zebra, from Portuguese zebra, zebro (“zebra”), from Old Galician-Portuguese enzebro, ezebra, azebra (“wild ass”), from earlier cebrario (882), ezebrario (897), from Vulgar Latin *eciferus, from Latin equiferus (“wild horse”) (Pliny), from equus (“horse”) + ferus (“wild”). While the word was traditionally pronounced with a long vowel in the first syllable in standard English, during the twentieth century a vowel shift occurred in regions of England, with the shortening of the first vowel.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).