zyzzyva

American  

[ziz-uh-vuh] / ˈzɪz ə və /

noun

1. any of various South American weevils of the genus Zyzzyva, often destructive to plants.

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Example Sentences

McMurtrie is senior editor of the San Francisco-based literary journal Zyzzyva.

From Los Angeles Times

He recently wrote a profile of the average Native American teen for Esquire magazine and has had short stories published in McSweeney’s, Zoetrope, and Zyzzyva — three literary magazines based in the Bay Area.

From Los Angeles Times

You don't need to know all of the words in a language: for example it seems unlikely that anyone reading this has suffered from not knowing that "Zyzzyva" is a kind of tropical weevil and not a Spice Girls lyric.

From BBC

We considered dusting off the dictionary and going from A1 to Zyzzyva, however, there are an estimated 171,146 words currently in use in the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, not to mention 47,156 obsolete words.

From BBC

He’s a staff writer at the Millions and contributing editor at Zyzzyva.

From Slate