See zero in on Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "The phrase possibly comes from adjusting a sighting mechanism of a firearm to minimise the discrepancy between where the sight points and where a bullet lands on a target.\nAnother possible source is the Cartesian coordinate system in mathematics. In the coordinate system, points are defined relative to an origin (point of reference) labeled O, which has an (x,y) coordinate pair of (0,0).",
"forms": [
{
"form": "zeroes in",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "zeros in",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "zeroing in",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "zeroed in",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "zeroed in",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "zero<zeroes> in",
"pres_3sg2": "zeros in"
},
"expansion": "zero in (third-person singular simple present zeroes in or zeros in, present participle zeroing in, simple past and past participle zeroed in)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"text": "The pilot zeroed in on the bunker and launched a guided missile.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"text": "Zero in and find a watermark in the image.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1981 September 15, day@RAND-UNIX, “C debugging”, in fa.unix-wizards (Usenet):",
"text": "When you invoke the VAX C compiler with -p for profiling it generates an assembly-language call to a profiling subroutine for which I substituted my own heap-checker, and that enabled me to zero in on a heap-violation which was caused by an array-out-of-bounds condition.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2021 December 6, Andrew E. Kramer, “Companies Linked to Russian Ransomware Hide in Plain Sight”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
"text": "The Biden administration has also zeroed in on the building, Federation Tower East, the tallest skyscraper in the Russian capital.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To focus one's aim; to zoom in and center (on something)."
],
"id": "en-zero_in-en-verb-EKPNB8-m",
"links": [
[
"focus",
"focus"
],
[
"aim",
"aim"
],
[
"zoom in",
"zoom in"
],
[
"center",
"center"
]
],
"related": [
{
"_dis1": "100 0 0 0",
"word": "dial in"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0 0 0",
"word": "home in"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "100 0 0 0",
"code": "nv",
"lang": "Navajo",
"sense": "aim precisely",
"word": "yikʼizhdiilniiʼ"
}
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "10 74 6 10",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "14 70 9 7",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English phrasal verbs formed with \"in\"",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "7 80 7 6",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Entries with translation boxes",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "9 75 7 9",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "6 83 6 5",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "10 71 12 7",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Navajo translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "10 75 8 7",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Spanish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "17 54 16 13",
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Zero",
"orig": "en:Zero",
"parents": [
"Numbers",
"All topics",
"Terms by semantic function",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "We have zeroed in on the source of the problem.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"text": "See if you can zero in on the caller.",
"type": "example"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To successfully narrow down a search (for)."
],
"id": "en-zero_in-en-verb-Q0xwuIdz",
"links": [
[
"successful",
"successful"
],
[
"narrow down",
"narrow down"
],
[
"search",
"search"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"text": "Coordinate term: tune in"
},
{
"text": "One member of the check fraud team will zero in on the fingerprints.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "2010, Elizabeth A. Armstrong, Laura Hamilton, Paula England, “Is Hooking Up Bad for Young Women? Compared to What?”, in Contexts, volume 9, number 3, →DOI, page 23b:",
"text": "Scholarship suggests that pop culture feminists have correctly zeroed in on sexual double standards as a key source of gender inequality in sexuality.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To concentrate or focus one's attention (on a task)."
],
"id": "en-zero_in-en-verb-~nPn4~UT",
"links": [
[
"concentrate",
"concentrate"
],
[
"focus",
"focus"
],
[
"attention",
"attention"
]
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "16 4 77 3",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "concentrate or focus",
"word": "concentrarse en"
},
{
"_dis1": "16 4 77 3",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "concentrate or focus",
"word": "enfocarse en"
},
{
"_dis1": "16 4 77 3",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "concentrate or focus",
"word": "centrarse en"
}
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"text": "At the spring sale, everyone zeroed in on the bargain clothes.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "2019 May 8, Barney Ronay, The Guardian:",
"text": "With 79 minutes gone, the most celebrated team of the modern age had been reduced to bunch of mooching, stumbling yellow-shirted spectators. A Champions League season that had seemed to be zeroing in on another coronation for Lionel Messi had been wrenched, gleefully, the other way.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To converge (on)."
],
"id": "en-zero_in-en-verb-MuMcbZoM",
"links": [
[
"converge",
"converge"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To converge (on)."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-zero in on.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f6/En-au-zero_in_on.ogg/En-au-zero_in_on.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/En-au-zero_in_on.ogg"
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],
"word": "zero in"
}
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English phrasal verbs",
"English phrasal verbs formed with \"in\"",
"English verbs",
"Entries with translation boxes",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Terms with Navajo translations",
"Terms with Spanish translations",
"en:Zero"
],
"etymology_text": "The phrase possibly comes from adjusting a sighting mechanism of a firearm to minimise the discrepancy between where the sight points and where a bullet lands on a target.\nAnother possible source is the Cartesian coordinate system in mathematics. In the coordinate system, points are defined relative to an origin (point of reference) labeled O, which has an (x,y) coordinate pair of (0,0).",
"forms": [
{
"form": "zeroes in",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "zeros in",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "zeroing in",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "zeroed in",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "zeroed in",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "zero<zeroes> in",
"pres_3sg2": "zeros in"
},
"expansion": "zero in (third-person singular simple present zeroes in or zeros in, present participle zeroing in, simple past and past participle zeroed in)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"related": [
{
"word": "dial in"
},
{
"word": "home in"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations",
"English terms with usage examples"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "The pilot zeroed in on the bunker and launched a guided missile.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"text": "Zero in and find a watermark in the image.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1981 September 15, day@RAND-UNIX, “C debugging”, in fa.unix-wizards (Usenet):",
"text": "When you invoke the VAX C compiler with -p for profiling it generates an assembly-language call to a profiling subroutine for which I substituted my own heap-checker, and that enabled me to zero in on a heap-violation which was caused by an array-out-of-bounds condition.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2021 December 6, Andrew E. Kramer, “Companies Linked to Russian Ransomware Hide in Plain Sight”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
"text": "The Biden administration has also zeroed in on the building, Federation Tower East, the tallest skyscraper in the Russian capital.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To focus one's aim; to zoom in and center (on something)."
],
"links": [
[
"focus",
"focus"
],
[
"aim",
"aim"
],
[
"zoom in",
"zoom in"
],
[
"center",
"center"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with usage examples"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "We have zeroed in on the source of the problem.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"text": "See if you can zero in on the caller.",
"type": "example"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To successfully narrow down a search (for)."
],
"links": [
[
"successful",
"successful"
],
[
"narrow down",
"narrow down"
],
[
"search",
"search"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations",
"English terms with usage examples"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "Coordinate term: tune in"
},
{
"text": "One member of the check fraud team will zero in on the fingerprints.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "2010, Elizabeth A. Armstrong, Laura Hamilton, Paula England, “Is Hooking Up Bad for Young Women? Compared to What?”, in Contexts, volume 9, number 3, →DOI, page 23b:",
"text": "Scholarship suggests that pop culture feminists have correctly zeroed in on sexual double standards as a key source of gender inequality in sexuality.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To concentrate or focus one's attention (on a task)."
],
"links": [
[
"concentrate",
"concentrate"
],
[
"focus",
"focus"
],
[
"attention",
"attention"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English terms with quotations",
"English terms with usage examples"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "At the spring sale, everyone zeroed in on the bargain clothes.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "2019 May 8, Barney Ronay, The Guardian:",
"text": "With 79 minutes gone, the most celebrated team of the modern age had been reduced to bunch of mooching, stumbling yellow-shirted spectators. A Champions League season that had seemed to be zeroing in on another coronation for Lionel Messi had been wrenched, gleefully, the other way.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To converge (on)."
],
"links": [
[
"converge",
"converge"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To converge (on)."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-zero in on.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f6/En-au-zero_in_on.ogg/En-au-zero_in_on.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/En-au-zero_in_on.ogg"
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],
"translations": [
{
"code": "nv",
"lang": "Navajo",
"sense": "aim precisely",
"word": "yikʼizhdiilniiʼ"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "concentrate or focus",
"word": "concentrarse en"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "concentrate or focus",
"word": "enfocarse en"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "concentrate or focus",
"word": "centrarse en"
}
],
"word": "zero in"
}
Download raw JSONL data for zero in meaning in All languages combined (5.0kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-10 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (df33d17 and 4ed51a5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.