-ation, -ization (-iz[e] + -ation); -isation (British spelling variation)

1. The use of uttered sounds for auditory communication: Cats are very good in communicating with their owners with vocalizations; especially, when they are hungry!
2. The sound made by the vibration of vocal folds modified by the resonance of the vocal tract: The bass, tenor, alto, and soprano are all good examples of vocalization and are very important sections in a chorus.
3. That which is voiced rather than voiceless: The vocalizations of letters exist when they are read out loud; otherwise, reading them silently does not produce any sounds.

1. An occupation that is often referred to as a "calling", because it is "a call to follow a way of life": The notion that a disembodied "voice" is calling people to their purpose on earth is the basis for the word vocation.
2. A call to, or fitness for, a certain career; especially, a religious position: Susan decided to become a nun and to serve in the church as her vocation because she felt deep down inside that God wanted her to serve Him, so she went to a convent to live and work.
3. The work or profession for which one has a sense of special fitness: Thomas was very good at writing essays in school in foreign languages and so he loved to travel and he thought that his vocation would be that of a foreign correspondent for television or for a news agency.
4. A strong feeling of suitability for a particular career or occupation: Lisa loved playing piano and was quite successful playing in recitals as a student, and she and her teachers felt that she had the talent, competency and endurance to choose the vocation of being a professional pianist.
5. Etymology: borrowed from Middle French, or directly from Latin vocation-, vocatio-, "a call" or "a summons"; from Latin vocare, "to call", and is related to voc-, vox, "voice".

The original meaning of vocation in 1426 was "a call from God to follow a spiritual way of life", as in "the priestly vocation or "the vocation of a nun".

The sense of one's ordinary occupation, or profession, is first recorded in English in 1553; perhaps influenced by that meaning which existed in Middle French.

© ALL rights are reserved.

Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
so you can see more of Mickey Bach's cartoons.

Excessive howling or yelling; especially, in protest of something or someone: The police presence at the demonstration was to keep the vociferations of the protesters, including Buddy and Timmy, under control.

The ability to fly.

1. The act, or power, of flying; flight.
2. The ability to fly.

1. The act of making something attractive to the general public.
2. The process of rendering something coarse and unrefined.

False imprisonment wherein a person is intentionally confined without legal authority.

1. The surgical removal of an organ or tissue from one species and transplanting it into a member of a different species, for example: the use of a baboon heart in a human being.
2. The surgical transfer of cells, tissues, or especially whole organs from one species to another.

The rationale for xenotransplantation is the short supply of human organs for transplantation.

The first to show that nonhuman organs could be transplanted to humans and function for a significant period of time was Dr. Keith Reemtsma (1925-2000).

At Tulane University in New Orleans, Dr. Reemtsma in 1963 and 1964 gave chimpanzee kidneys to five patients in the first chimpanzee-to-human transplants. The recipients died (of infection) from eight to sixty-three days after receiving a chimpanzee kidney.

Then, in 1964, Reemtsma transplanted a kidney from a chimpanzee to a 23-year-old teacher. She lived with it for nine months until succumbing to overwhelming infection.

Xenotransplantation is synonymous with "cross-species transplantation".

The ratio of the zetacrit to the hematocrit, normally 0.41 to 0.54 (41 to 54%); used as an indicator of the red blood cell sedimentation rate.

It is a sensitive indicator of the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and is unaffected by anemia, which tends to elevate the ESR.

1. The state or condition of being zonate.
2. Arrangement or distribution in zones.
3. Arrangement or formation in zones; a zonate structure.
4. In ecology, the distribution of organisms in biogeographic zones.