In the title compound, [Zn(C(7)H(4)O(6)S)(C(19)H(12)N(4))(2)(H(2)O)], the Zn(II) ion is coordinated by two N,N'-bidentate 2-phenyl-1H-1,3,7,8-tetra-azacyclo-penta-[l]phenanthrene ligands, one O-monodentate 5-sulfosalicylate dianion and a water mol-ecule. This results in a distorted cis-ZnO(2)N(4) octa-hedral coordination geometry for the metal ion. In the crystal, mol-ecules are expanded into a three-dimensional supra-molecular motif via O-H⋯O, O-H⋯N and N-H⋯(O,S) hydrogen bonds. In addition, π-π stacking inter-actions between the aromatic rings of the polycyclic ligands consolidate the sturcture [shortest centroid-centroid distance = 3.501 (2) Å].