There are no English conjunctions that start with Z. Conjunctions are the small words that join ideas together, such as “and,” “but,” “or,” “so,” and “because.” Not one of the standard ones begins with the last letter of the alphabet. Even long lists of conjunctions, from school grammar books to full dictionaries, jump from “yet” straight to the end with no Z entry.

The reason is how English conjunctions came to be. Most of them are very old words that come from Old English, and they were shaped by everyday speech over many centuries. Old English did not use the letter Z in its native words, and the sound only became common through later borrowings from Greek, French, and Latin. Those borrowed words are mostly nouns and names, like “zebra,” “zone,” and “zinc.” Conjunctions are a closed class, which means English almost never adds new ones. Because of this, no Z word has had a chance to join the group.

Some words come close, but none of them work as true conjunctions. “Zounds” is an old exclamation, and “zero” and “zip” are nouns or verbs. Other languages do have conjunctions that start with Z. Dutch uses “zodat” (so that), “zodra” (as soon as), and “zolang” (as long as), and German uses “zumal” (especially since). If you are looking for Z words in English grammar, the best place to look is the rest of the alphabet, where conjunctions like “unless,” “until,” “whereas,” and “while” fill the gap.