What is the last word in English, please? (Alphabetically, literally the last defined in OED.) My dictionary gives Zygote and I’d expect a zy, therefore biological reference. If so, could I trouble you for the last non-biologigcal word too?

Bryn

The OED online has zyxt which it defines as:

obs. (Kentish) 2nd sing. ind. pres. of SEE v.

The AHD gives zyzzyva, "any of various tropical American weevils of the genus Zyzzyva, often destructive to plants."

It’s from "New Latin Zyzzyva, genus name, probably from Zyzza, former genus of leafhoppers."

The last entry in my BMF dictionary (the Unabridge Random House Dictionary of the English Language, (1971) is:

ZZZ, (used to represent the sound of a person snoring.)

The entries before that are:

zymogen
zymogenesis
zymogenic
zymology
zymolysis
zymometer
zymoplastic
zymosis
zymosthennic
zymotic
zymotic disease
zymurgy
Zyrian
ZZ
zZ
zz
Zz.
zZt

Thank you!

Wonderful how we sometimes miss the obvious. I will be sure to get my full share of zzzs.

Bryn