Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell zealous

Zealous is spelled Z-E-A-L-O-U-S.

What it means: Showing great enthusiasm or passion.

In a sentence: The zealous puppy wagged its tail excitedly when it saw its owner. ▶

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear.

Same family: zeal, zealously, zealot, zealotry, enthusiastic. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Zealous” comes from the Medieval Latin word “zelosus,” meaning “full of zeal,” which itself goes back to the Greek “zēlos,” a word for passionate desire or rivalry. In older religious writing, being “zealous” was often praised as a strong, devoted kind of faith.

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