This article reviews promising studies on the design, manufacturing, microstructure, properties, and applications of glassāceramics containing ZrO2 and relevant glassāceramic matrix composites. After the addition of ZrO2 to a glassāceramic composition, it can persist in the residual glassy phase, facilitate nucleation, and/or precipitate as ZrO2 or another zirconate crystalline phase. Also, ZrO2āreinforced or ZrO2ātoughened glassāceramics can be designed as composites. In this article, the term āZrO2ācontaining glassāceramicsā encompasses all these scenarios in which ZrO2 is present. Such glassāceramics offer a wide range of applications in modern industries, including but not limited to architecture, optics, dentistry, medicine, and energy. Since S. Donald Stookey's discovery of glassāceramics in the early 1950s, the most important scientific efforts reported in the literature are reviewed. ZrO2 is commonly added to glassāceramics to promote nucleation. As a result, the role of ZrO2 in structural modification of residual glass and stimulating the nucleation in glassāceramic is first discussed. ZrO2 can also be designed into the main crystalline phase of glassāceramics, contributing achieving super high fracture toughness above 4Ā MPaĀ·m0.5. Experimental and computational studies are reviewed in detail to elucidate how the transformation toughening and other mechanisms help to achieve such high values of fracture toughness. Sintered and glassāceramic matrix composites also show promise, where ZrO2 contributes to improved stability and mechanical properties. Finally, we hope this article will provoke interest in glassāceramic materials in both the scientific and industrial communities so that their tremendous technological potential in developing, for example, tough, thermally stable, transparent, and biologically compatible materials can be realized more widely.