zip code

See also: zipcode, ZIP code, and ZIP Code

English

Alternative forms

• zipcode, ZIP Code, ZIP code, Zip Code, Zip code

Etymology

From ZIP Code, a trademark of the United States Postal Service, from ZIP (“Zone Improvement Plan”), introduced 1963.

Noun

zip code (plural zip codes)

1. (US) A postal code, especially for addresses served by the US Postal Service, consisting of a five- or nine-figure number.

   Synonyms: zip, ZIP

   Hypernyms: postal code, postcode

   • 2009, Judy Root Aulette, Judith G. Wittner, Kristin Blakely, Gendered Worlds‎^[1], Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 351:

     90210 was a television show popular in the 1990s about a group of high school students and their families who all lived in the zip code 90210 in Beverly Hills, California, an affluent suburb of Los Angeles.

2. (US, by extension) Any postal code.

   Synonyms: postal code, postcode

   • 1990, Alan Simpson, Paul Lichtman, The First Book of Lotus 1-2-3‎^[2], H.W. Sams & Company, →ISBN:

     For example, the foreign zip code H24 JZL is most certainly not a number.

   • 2011, Jaime Reed, Burning Emerald, Kensington Publishing Corp., →ISBN, page 46:

     Carrying the package to the stairs inside, I noticed it was addressed to Mom and me with a European zip code and stamp.

3. (Philippines) A postal code, especially for addresses served by PhilPost, consisting of a four-figure number.
4. (sports, by extension) A grouping of athletes or teams with similar skill level.

   Wallace and Brewer are almost certain to finish 1-2 in some order – no one else is even in the same zip code.

Derived terms

• have one's own zip code

 

Translations

US postal code

• Finnish: zip-koodi
• Japanese: ジップコード (jippu kōdo)
• Korean: 짚 코드 (jip kodeu)
• Navajo: kéyah binahósʼaʼ bibéézh, nahósʼaʼ bibéézh

postcode — see postcode

Verb

zip code (third-person singular simple present zip codes, present participle zip coding, simple past and past participle zip coded)

1. (transitive) To provide with, or allocate to, a zip code.

Further reading

• ZIP Code on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• zip code, zipcode, ZIP code, ZIP Code, Zip Code at Google Ngram Viewer