zero

→ Tokelauan: helo

From French zéro, from Italian zero, from Medieval Latin zephirum, from Arabic صِفْر (ṣifr, “nothing, cipher”), itself calqued from Sanskrit शून्य (śūnya, “void, nothingness”). Doublet of cipher and chiffre.

der

The conductor waited until the passenger count was zero.

A cheque for zero dollars and zero cents crashed the computers on division by zero.

The cardinal number occurring before one and that denotes no quantity or amount at all, represented in Arabic numerals as 0.

nul

cardinal number before 1, denoting nothing

Table of cardinal numbers 0 to 9 in various languages


zero

en-noun

zero (countable and uncountable, plural zeros or zeroes)

pole

antonym(s) of “value of a function's variables at zero”

They rudely treated him like a zero.

(slang) A person of little or no importance.

The visit to Townsville was filled with nostalgia for me. I remembered very well staying there on June 8, 1942. I shared a room with a brave and friendly officer, Colonel Francis Stevens. Early the next morning we flew to Port Moresby in New Guinea, and from there we took off in separate planes. Colonel Stevens never returned from that flight; his plane was shot down by a Japanese Zero.

1971, Lyndon Johnson, “The New Age of Regionalism”, in The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 361:

(military, usually capitalized) A Mitsubishi A6M Zero, a long range fighter aircraft operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service from 1940 to 1945.


love

Now widely believed (due to historical written record) to be from the idea that when one does a thing “for love” it is for no monetary gain, the word “love” thus implying "nothing".
The former assumption that it had originated from French l’œuf (literally “the egg”), due to its shape, has largely been discredited and is no longer widely accepted. However, the apparent similarity of the shape of an egg to a zero has inspired similar analogies, such as the use of duck (reputed to be short for duck's egg) for a zero score at cricket, and goose egg for "zero".

So that’s fifteen-love to Kournikova.

The next day Agassi came back from two sets to love down to beat Courier in five sets.

2013, Paul McNamee, Game Changer: My Tennis Life:

(racquet sports, billiards) Zero, no score.


zilch

zilch (countable and uncountable, plural zilches)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-zilch.wav

Probably from Joe Zilch, a placeholder name (compare John Doe) used by Nunnally Johnson in his column in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle from 1923; in turn from Joe Zilch, an unseen character referenced in comedian Frank Tinney's stage routine. Compare the rare German surname Zilch.

President Henry P. Zilch. Chairman of the Board Charles D. Zilch. Treasurer Otto Zilch.

1931 July, Ballyhoo, Vol. I, No. 1, p. 1

Bernarr MacZilch [for Bernarr Macfadden] and His Dynamic-Hooey System... The WEAKLING Who Became 'The World's Most Perfect Ass!'

Dinglegoofer, Mr. Zilch, indefinite nicknames.

1940, Lester V. Berrey et al., The American Thesaurus of Slang, §184:

(countable, informal, archaic) A nobody: a person who is worthless in importance or character.

Her search for decent home-made winter clothes came up with zilch, so she had to get imported stuff.

"If the homeless wind up with zilch," James retorted, veiling his indignation behind a malevolent smile, "it's because they deserve zilch."

1991, Judith Arnold, One Good Turn, page 104:


zilch

Zilch, adj. Nothing, zero...

1966, University of South Dakota, Current Slang:

...gorgeous faces but zilch talent...

1977 February 3, The Telegraph, page 14:

(informal, chiefly US) No, zero, non-existent.


zilch

en-verb

zilch (third-person singular simple present zilches, present participle zilching, simple past and past participle zilched)

zilches (present singular third-person)
zilching (participle present)
zilched (participle past)
zilched (past)

We zilched them on that rubber.

1969, University of South Dakota, Current Slang:

My favorite film of 1989 got zilched... That would be Field of Dreams.

(informal, US sports) To cause to score nothing, to thoroughly defeat.


zeroth

The zeroth order polynomial approximation is constant.

(mathematics) In the initial position in a sequence whose elements are numbered starting at zero; the ordinal number corresponding to zero.


oh

From Middle English o, oo, from Old English ō, from Latin ō.

One genuine recycled local glass of aitch-two-oh

Exes and Ohs: A Downtown Girl's (Mostly Awkward) Tales of Love, Lust, Revenge, and a Little Facebook Stalking

2011, Shallon Lester, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

The name of the Latin-script letter O/o.


From Latin nīl, a contraction of nihil, nihilum (“nothing”). See
nihilism.

As to Aristotle's influence on him, we are left free to conjecture whatever seems to us most plausible. For my part, I should suppose it nil.

1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.19:

The football match ended in a nil-nil draw.


But after two or three hours and nil results, you have to accept that the trail is cold and you can't justify that level of manpower.

1982, Gavin Lyall, Conduct of Major Maxim, Hodder & Stoughton Ltd:


Borrowed from Middle French nul, from Latin nūllus.

The kindes of Cyphars, (beſides the Simple Cyphars with Changes, and the intermixtures of Nvlles, and Nonsignificants) are many, according to the Nature or Rule of infoulding : Wheele-Cyphars, Kay-Cyphars, Dovbles, &c.

1605, Francis Bacon, “The Second Booke”, in The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the Proficience and Aduancement of Learning, Diuine and Humane, London: […] [Thomas Purfoot and Thomas Creede] for Henrie Tomes, […], →OCLC, folio 61, recto:

(computing) The null character; the ASCII or Unicode character (␀), represented by a zero value, which indicates no character and is sometimes used as a string terminator.


en-adj

null (comparative more null, superlative most null)

more null (comparative)
most null (superlative)

(mathematics) Of or comprising a value of precisely zero.


absolute zero

(physics) The coldest possible temperature, zero on the Kelvin scale, or approximately −273.15 °C, −459.67 °F; total absence of heat; temperature at which motion of all molecules would cease.


cipher

14th century. From Middle English cifre, from Old French cyfre, cyffre (French chiffre), ultimately from Arabic صِفْر (ṣifr, “zero, empty”), from صَفَرَ (ṣafara, “to be empty”). Doublet of chiffre and zero. Sense 8 (a fault in an organ valve) may be a different word.

O pardon: ſince a crooked Figure may / Atteſt in little place a Million, / And let vs, Cyphers to this great Accompt, / On your imaginarie Forces worke.

1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, prologue], page 69, columns 1–2:

Firſt, Find what Decimal of a Pound .625 will Repreſent, which is eaſily done if you prepone a Cypher, and half the Number is the Decimal of a Pound. The Number with a Cypher preponed is .0625, ½ is .03125.

1716, John Hill, Arithmetick Both in the Theory and Practice, Made Plain and Easie, in All the Common and Useful Rules, Both in Whole Numbers, and Fractions, Vulgar and Decimal. […], 2nd edition, London: […] D. Midwinter, […], page 185:

We saw earlier about this new symbol, the cipher, that can make numbers big.

2024, Numberphile, by Brady Haran with Rob Eastaway, The Big X - Numberphile:


zero vector

The zero vector of a given vector space is the space's additive identity.

(mathematics, linear algebra) A vector 0 in a vector space V such that for any v∈V, 0+v=v; a vector whose value in every dimension is zero; i.e., ⃑0=<0,0,…,0>.


negative zero

en-noun

negative zero (countable and uncountable, plural negative zeros or negative zeroes)

negative zeros (plural)
negative zeroes (plural)

One must take care in handling negative zero in comparisons.

(computing) A signed magnitude representation of zero in which the sign bit indicates a negative number.


positive zero

positive zero (countable and uncountable, plural positive zeros or positive zeroes)

positive zeros (plural)
positive zeroes (plural)

When not otherwise noted, "zero" will mean "positive zero" here.

(computing) A signed magnitude representation of zero in which the sign bit indicates a positive number.


ought

I go back at eight o'clock to-morrow morning, and have got only three—three oughts an ought—three twos six—sixty pound.

1838 March – 1839 October, Charles Dickens, “Nicholas and His Uncle (to Secure the Fortune Without Loss of Time) Wait upon Mr. Wackford Squeers, the Yorkshire Schoolmaster”, in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 24:

Alternative spelling of aught; cipher, zero, nought.


zero hour

I waited with occasional glances at my watch until the zero hour should arrive.

1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, When the World Screamed:

Zero hour was forty-five minutes after midnight. Two companies were to attack on a 600-yard front …

1937, Siegfried Sassoon, The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston, London: Faber, page 339 (1972 paperback edition):

She packed my bags last night, pre-flight / Zero hour 9 a.m. / And I'm gonna be high / As a kite by then

1972 April 17, Elton John, Bernie Taupin, “Rocket Man”, in Honky Château, performed by Elton John:


zero-rated

(chiefly British) Subject to no value-added tax when sold (but in which the supplier can still recover VAT attributable to it).


ground zero

ground zero (countable and uncountable, plural ground zeroes)

/ˌɡɹaʊnd ˈzɪəɹəʊ/

/ˌɡɹaʊnd ˈzɪɚ(ˌ)oʊ/

From ground + zero, first attested in a June 1946 a report by the United States Strategic Bombing Survey on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, on August 6 and 9, 1945, during World War II. “Zero” was used as the code name for the location of the Trinity atomic bomb test – the first detonation of a nuclear weapon – in New Mexico, USA, on July 16, 1945.

James Meredith's forced admission was a milestone in upending the old order in America's most segregated state, a kind of race relations ground zero.

1997 May 4, Adam Nossiter, “Ground Zero”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Less than two years into the job, she has transformed Washington into ground zero of America’s education reform movement.

2009 March 21, Nicholas Kristof, “Education’s Ground Zero”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(figuratively) The point at which something begins.


sub-zero

(US, of a temperature) below 0°F (−18°C)


zero-point energy

zero-point energy (plural zero-point energies)

The calculated zero-point energies of hydrogen at inner bulk, GB, and FS are within 0.12-0.16eV/H.

2004, Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, Volume 73, Pages 1-768, Physical Society of Japan, page 441:

(physics, physical chemistry) The kinetic energy possessed by (the particle constituents of) a substance at absolute zero temperature.

nollapiste-energia

energy possessed by an object at a temperature of absolute zero


zero-sum

Dalio is right, but somewhat self-serving. If hedge-fund managers are playing a zero-sum game, what is their social utility? […] Can it really be in America’s interest to have so much of its young talent playing a zero-sum game?

2011 July 18, John Cassidy, “Mastering the Machine”, in The New Yorker, →ISSN:

Of any system where all gains are offset by exactly equal losses.


zero-sum game

A zero-sum game, as its name suggests, is one in which, whatever the outcome, the payoffs to the players add up to zero, which means that what one player gains, the other(s) must necessarily lose.

2013, Andrew M. Colman, Game Theory and its Applications: In the Social and Biological Sciences, Psychology Press, →ISBN, page 55:

Listen, I know it's been hard / You know it’s no different for me / We’re less than a zero-sum game now / And baby, we both know that's not how it's supposed to be

2014, “The Writing's On the Wall”, in Hungry Ghosts, performed by OK Go:

He said turning a lab-created animal into a wild population would be an “enormous challenge”, but the financial support for de-extinction research should not be seen as a “zero sum game”.

2022 August 16, Adam Morton, “De-extinction: scientists are planning the multimillion-dollar resurrection of the Tasmanian tiger”, in The Guardian:

On the flight home after their first talks, a deflated Merkel concluded that Trump “looked at everything like the real estate developer he was before he entered politics” – as a zero-sum game.

2024 November 21, Deborah Cole, “Merkel: I mistook Trump for ‘someone completely normal’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(game theory) A game (or a similar political or economic system) in which the gains of some players must equal the losses of others.

零和博弈

system in which one player's winnings must equal losses of others


zero tolerance

I get weary of this zero tolerance bullshit. It's annoying. To begin with, it's a fascist concept; it's what Hitler and Stalin practiced. It allows for no exceptions or compassion of any kind. All is black and white—no gradations. But even more important, it doesn't solve anything. The use of such a slogan simply allows whichever company, school or municipality is using it to claim they're doing something about a problem when, in fact, nothing is being done at all and the problem is being ignored. It's a cosmetic non-solution designed to impress simpletons. Whenever you hear the phrase zero tolerance, remember, someone is bullshitting you.

2004, George Carlin, “ZERO TOLERANCE”, in When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?, New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 84:

The strict policy of enforcing law(s) or the rule(s), and allowing no toleration or compromise even for first-time offenders or petty violations.

零容忍

strict policy of enforcing all the laws or rules


zero in

en-verb

zero in (third-person singular simple present zeroes in or zeros in, present participle zeroing in, simple past and past participle zeroed in)

zeroes in (present singular third-person)
zeros in (present singular third-person)
zeroing in (participle present)
zeroed in (participle past)
zeroed in (past)

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.
Another 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).

We have zeroed in on the source of the problem.

See if you can zero in on the caller.

To successfully narrow down a search (for).


naught

From the Middle English naught, nought, naht, nawiht, from Old English nawiht. Cognate with West Frisian neat (“nothing, naught”). Doublet of nought. Equivalent to ne + aught.

This Rolls-Royce saloon does naught to sixty in five seconds.


goose egg

From the oval shape of both a goose's egg and the Arabic numeral zero (0).

I missed every question on the quiz and got a goose egg.

Grandmaster and grand duffer alike prefer the all-important point to the ignominious goose egg.

1949 March, I. A. Horowitz, “Readers' Games”, in Chess Review:


nought

From Middle English nought, noght, noȝt, from Old English nōwiht, nāwiht, which in turn comes from ne-ā-wiht, which was a phrase used as an emphatic "no", meaning "not anything". Equivalent to ne + ought or ne + a + wight. Doublet of naught and not.

0.4 — nought point four / zero point four

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Not any quantity of number; zero; the score of no points in a game.


zero coupon bond

en-noun

zero coupon bond (plural zero coupon bonds)

(finance) A bond (e.g., corporate debenture or government debt) that has no coupon (i.e., pays no interest), during the life of the issue. Such a bond is initially sold at a discount to its face value. The rate of return to the holder is derived from the gradual appreciation as the security moves toward maturity.


niladic

(computing) Of an operator or function in a program, having no arguments.


zero deflection

(firearms) The adjustment of a sight, exactly parallel to the axis of the bore of the gun to which it is attached.


zero-dimensional

(geometry) Having zero dimensions; having no extent in any direction.


zero hundred

The start of the first hour of the day on the 24-hour clock, i.e. 0:00, military time.


zero-length launching

(military) A technique in which the first motion of the missile or aircraft removes it from the launcher, typically before the missile fuel or aircraft engine is fired.


zero-emission vehicle

zero-emission vehicle (plural zero-emission vehicles)

A vehicle that does not emit exhaust gas or other pollutants from the onboard source of power.


A variant of the British 999, originally selected as an appropriate number for rotary-dial telephones and adapted in Australia because of the need to dial an initial 0 from remote exchanges to connect to the main trunk lines.

When you call 000, the Telstra operator usually answers the phone with "Emergency. Police, fire, or ambulance?"

The telephone number for emergency services in Australia.


nulliparous

(of a woman or female animal) That has never given birth.


zero gravity

Coined by Austro-Hungarian-American artist Jack Binder in his 1938 picture feature "If Science Reached the Earth's Core", printed in the October 1938 issue of the science-fiction pulp-magazine Thrilling Wonder Stories as part of a series of similar "If—" articles.

Starting at the zero-gravity of earth's core, accumulative acceleration is easily built up in a four-thousand-mile tube.

1938 October, Jack Binder, “If Science Reached the Earth's Core”, in Thrilling Wonder Stories, volume 12, number 2, page 9:

A gravity-free world, or zero gravity, or weightlessness is ... a relative thing.

1968, William J. Masica, “Zero-Gravity Effects”, in Nasa Technical Memorandum, page 3:

The tricky part is dressing while floating in zero gravity!

2015, James Buckley Jr., Home Address, ISS:

The state of apparent weightlessness which occurs in a very low gravity field, or in free fall.


nullary

(mathematics, of a function) Taking no entries; having trivial domain; having the arity of zero.

vakio-

mathematics, of a function: taking no entries


nonzero

nonzero Hopf number

(mathematics, of a quantity) Not equal to zero.

ei-nolla (more common to say joka ei ole nolla "that is not zero")

nichtnull (only predicatively or compounding)


zero-knowledge

(logic) Describing situations in which the veracity of a statement may be shown to be true without revealing any other information.


zero-knowledge proof

zero-knowledge proof (plural zero-knowledge proofs)

Implementation of a zero-knowledge proof significantly improves the privacy and security of many systems. However, it introduces additional costs in processing power and hard drive space.

2020, Lorne Lantz, Daniel Cawrey, Mastering Blockchain, O'Reilly Media, →ISBN, page 185:

(cryptography) An interactive method for one party to prove to another that a (usually mathematical) statement is true, without revealing anything other than the veracity of the statement.

preuve à divulgation nulle de connaissance


size zero

size zero (countable and uncountable, plural size zeros)

(informal) A woman with a very low body mass index, especially such a fashion model


zero-based budget

zero-based budget (plural zero-based budgets)

(management) A budget developed disregarding the expenses or costs of the prior year, requiring explicit justification for all expenditures.


zero one infinity rule

(computing, informal) The rule that a database, a user interface, etc. should allow for either zero, one, or an indefinite number of an entity.


zero air

For calibration, first pass a known range of concentrations of the gas through the gas chromatograph, for comparison with zero air that contains effectively none of the gas to be measured.

(analytical chemistry, chromatography) Atmospheric air specially cleaned so that it contains less than 0.1 ppm of hydrocarbon impurities.


zero-day

Back then, having "zero day warez" (brand new cracked games that are not even one day old yet) on your BBS first was a big status symbol.

2020, Oliver Markus Malloy, Bad Choices Make Good Stories:

(computing) Of warez, released less than a day after the official product release.


zero-grade

From zero + grade, as in gradation (“apophony”). Possibly after German Nullstufe.

bʰr̥- is the zero-grade of the Indo-European root *bʰer- meaning “to carry, bear”.

(Indo-European linguistics) In Proto-Indo-European linguistics, an ablaut form of a root characterized by the absence of the basic ablauting vowel phonemes */e/ and */o/.


go from zero to hero

en-verb

go from zero to hero (third-person singular simple present goes from zero to hero, present participle going from zero to hero, simple past went from zero to hero, past participle gone from zero to hero)

goes from zero to hero (present singular third-person)
going from zero to hero (participle present)
went from zero to hero (past)
gone from zero to hero (participle past)

(idiomatic) To become very popular after being unpopular.


zeroary

(computing, mathematics, nonstandard) Nullary.


zero G

Clipping of zero gravity. Coined by British science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke (as "zero 'g'") in his 1952 novel Islands in the Sky.


zero out

zero out (third-person singular simple present zeroes out or zeros out, present participle zeroing out, simple past and past participle zeroed out)

zeroes out (present singular third-person)
zeros out (present singular third-person)
zeroing out (participle present)
zeroed out (participle past)
zeroed out (past)


Like 911, 119, etc., selected as a number both fast and easy to call from rotary or touch-tone phones and less likely to be mistakenly dialed.

The telephone number for emergency services in Iran.

110 handles police emergencies in Japan, Taiwan, and Korea but fires and medical emergencies have a separate number, 119.

The telephone number for law enforcement in China, Japan, Germany, Indonesia, Latvia, Bolivia, Guatamala, Andorra, Nauru, and the Ivory Coast and on Taiwan.

The telephone number for ambulance services in Jamaica, Syria, and Sri Lanka.

The telephone number for firefighting assistance in Norway, Jamaica, Suriname, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Papua New Guinea.


ones and zeros

Hiro Protagonist [in Snow Crash (1992) by Neal Stephenson] must win, one might say, on both Surf and Turf against the wonderfully evil Evangelist Minister R. Bob Riff and his allies, both in the world of violence, swordplay, and aircraft carriers and in the world of ones and zeros.

1996, R[obert] James Woolsey [Jr.], “Resilience and Vulnerability in the Digital Age”, in Stuart J. D. Schwartzstein, editor, The Information Revolution and National Security: Dimensions and Directions (Significant Issues Series; vol. XVIII, no. 3), Washington, D.C.: Center for Strategic and International Studies, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 79:

[D]igitalization seems to be re(con)textualizing all those foundations into ones and zeros so thoroughly that one cannot find 'the programmer'.

2006, Timothy W. Luke, “Power and Political Culture”, in Leah W. Lievrouw, Sonia Livingstone, editors, Handbook of New Media: Social Shaping and Social Consequences of ICTs, updated student edition, London, Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications, →ISBN, part 1 (New Media, Culture and Society), page 163, column 2:

You once said that the "ones and zeros" in the world's computers were demons that could trick the human race into losing all its history.

2007, Henning Mankell, chapter 8, in Laurie Thompson, transl., Kennedy’s Brain: Translated from the Swedish, New York, N.Y.: The New Press, →ISBN, part 1 (Christ’s Cul-de-sac), page 83:

If you are a developer or an architect, you are one for a good reason: Your magic and craft is turning ones and zeros into a solution that makes life and work better.

2008, Steven C. Seow, “Preface”, in Karen Gettman, editor, Designing and Engineering Time: The Psychology of Time Perception in Software, Upper Saddle River, N.J., Boston, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, →ISBN, page xvii:

Neo has been hacking since he was in elementary school. He is more at ease with ones and zeros than his own language.

2012, Wayne M. Smith, “The Wraith of Frank—Cyber War Style”, in The Sand Castle, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, pages 99–100:


zeroth grade

(US, education) A hypothetical year of grade school before first grade.


zero-rate

zero-rate (third-person singular simple present zero-rates, present participle zero-rating, simple past and past participle zero-rated)

zero-rates (present singular third-person)
zero-rating (participle present)
zero-rated (participle past)
zero-rated (past)

For example, zero-rating machinery invites attempts to redesignate as such other machinery likely to be used by exempt traders.

2001, Ebril Liam, Michael Keen, Jean-Paul Bodin, Victoria Summers, “Treatment of Agriculture”, in The Modern VAT, International Monetary Fund (IMF), →ISBN, page 103:

We have to balance either zero-rating some of the goods or distributing them through spending. There are certain goods, however, that even if you zero-rated them, the poor still cannot afford them yet they are essential then we distribute them through spending.

2018 February 28, Given Majola, “Stability at the Treasury crucial for better service”, in Independent Online (IOL), retrieved 2020-12-08:

Local firms have also been for long objected that Ugandan illegally introduced a 12 per cent inspection fee in 2017 for Kenya’s pharmaceutical exports while it zero-rated Uganda- made^([sic]) drugs.

2020 July 15, Elizabeth Kiuva, “Kenya’s trade in EAC up despite tensions”, in Business Daily, retrieved 2020-12-08:

(transitive) To subject (a good) to no value-added tax when sold (but in which the supplier can still recover VAT attributable to it).


element zero

From being a chemical element with zero protons.

(science fiction) A fictional chemical element with element number/atomic number/proton number zero (0), often with unrealistic properties.