Zinc oxide is a material which exhibits a variety of new properties at nanometer dimensions. Various synthesis techniques have been carried out to provide growth of nanowires, nanorods, nanorings, nanosprings, and nanobelts of ZnO under various conditions. These nanostructures show that ZnO possesses probably the richest family of nanoarchitectures among all materials, including their structures and properties. Such nanoarchitectures are potential building blocks for novel applications in optoelectronics, sensors, photovoltaic and nano-biomedical sciences. This work presents a review of various nano architectures of ZnO grown by the electrochemical, hydrothermal and solid–vapor phase techniques and their properties. The possible applications of ZnO nanowires as sensors, nano-DSSC, photodetectors and nano-LEDs will be presented.