zero

num

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

   “The conductor waited until the passenger count was zero.”

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

   “Last year, it scored 26 on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index which ranks countries on a scale of zero to 100, with zero meaning “highly corrupt” and 100 signifying that a country is “very clean.””

   “"A zero itself is nothing, but without a zero you cannot count anything. Therefore, a zero is something, yet zero." These words of wisdom from the Dalai Lama might not have been in the minds of planners and engineers when designing new railway station platforms, but for several main line stations, zero is indeed something. Eight stations in the UK now operate a Platform 0 - from Cardiff to Kings Cross, Doncaster and Haymarket.”

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The numeric symbol that represents the cardinal number zero.

   “In unary and k-adic notation in general, zero is the empty string.”

   “Write 0.0 to indicate a floating point number rather than the integer zero.”

   “The zero sign in American Sign Language is considered rude in some cultures.”

2. (countable, uncountable)The digit 0 in the decimal, binary, and all other base numbering systems.

   “One million has six zeroes.”

   “His idea is to stand billions of ultrafine wire loops around the edge of a silicon chip — hence the name racetrack — and use electric current to slide infinitesimally small magnets up and down along each of the wires to be read and written as digital ones and zeros.”

   “Here is the formal definition: an autobiographical number is a number N such that the first digit of N counts how many zeroes are in N, the second digit counts how many ones are in N and so on. In our example, 1210 has 1 zero, 2 ones, 1 two and 0 threes.”

   “This effectively allows switching on and off of the flow of current, so it is either conducting or not conducting, creating the binary system of zeroes and ones used in digital computers.”

3. (informal, uncountable)Nothing, or none.

   “The shipment was lost, so they had zero in stock.”

   “He knows zero about humour.”

   “In the end, all of our hard work amounted to zero.”

4. (countable, uncountable)The value of a magnitude corresponding to the cardinal number zero.

   “The electromagnetic field does not drop all of the way to zero before a reversal.”

   “Investors face a quandary. Cash offers a return of virtually zero in many developed countries; government-bond yields may have risen in recent weeks but they are still unattractive. Equities have suffered two big bear markets since 2000 and are wobbling again. It is hardly surprising that pension funds, insurers and endowments are searching for new sources of return.”

5. (countable, uncountable)The point on a scale at which numbering or measurement originates.

   “The temperature outside is ten degrees below zero.”

6. (countable, uncountable)A value of the independent variables of a function, for which the function is equal to zero.

   “The zeroes of a polynomial are its roots by the fundamental theorem of algebra.”

   “The derivative of a continuous, differentiable function that twice crosses the axis must have a zero.”

   “The nontrivial zeros of the Riemann zeta function may all lie on the critical line.”

   “As the next example shows, the set of zeros may well have a limit point not belonging to the domain.”

7. (countable, uncountable)The additive identity element of a monoid or greater algebraic structure, particularly a group or ring.

   “Since a commutative zero is the inverse of any additive identity, it must be unique when it exists.”

   “The zero (of a ring or field) has the property that the product of the zero with any element yields the zero.”

   “The quotient ring over a maximal ideal is a field with a single zero element.”

8. (countable, slang, uncountable)A person dismissed as unimportant.

   “They rudely treated him like a zero.”

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

   “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.”

10. (countable, uncountable)A setting of calibrated instruments such as a firearm, corresponding to a zero value.
11. (countable, uncountable)A security which has a zero coupon (paying no periodic interest).

    “The takeovers were financed by issuing zeroes.”

det

1. Synonym of no.

   “She showed zero respect.”

   “You have to salute Gerrard's bravery in accepting the challenge of trying to turn Rangers around given that he has zero experience in senior management. Immortality beckons if he does it.”

adj

1. (not-comparable)Of a cloud ceiling, limiting vision to 50 feet (15 meters) or less.
2. (not-comparable)Of horizontal visibility, limited to 165 feet (50.3 meters) or less.
3. (not-comparable)Present at an abstract level, but not realized in the surface form.

   “The stem of "kobieta" with the zero ending is "kobiet".”

4. (not-comparable, postpositional)Used in the names of foodstuffs, especially beverages, to indicate a version with no calories

verb

1. (transitive)To set some amount to be zero.

   “They tried to zero the budget by the end of the quarter.”

   “Results were inconsistent because an array wasn’t zeroed during initialization.”

   “Zero the fluorometer with the same solvent used in extraction.”

   “George parked in space 34, zeroed the trip meter, closed and locked his car, then went back to the guard shack.”

2. To disappear or make something disappear.

   “Traffic on the encrypted channels used by senior Iraqi generals had peaked and zeroed, then peaked again, and zeroed again.”

   “They discovered the object code for the simulator that was DON, and zeroed it. DON — or his creator — was clever and had planted many copies,”

   “If I zeroed Jack, I'd get by So I'd erased him, pretended the last few months had never happened.”

3. To adjust until the variance is reduced to an acceptably low amount.

   “The soldier took his gun to the shooting range to zero its aim.”