Nil

How to spell nil

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce nil

What does nil mean?

1. nounZero, or the complete absence of any quantity.

Nil in a sentence

• The home side won the match three to nil.

• The audit showed a balance of nil in the dormant account.

Where does nil come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is a shortened form of the Latin nihil, which simply meant 'nothing'. The Latin word itself was a contraction of nihilum, formed from ni- (a reduced form of ne, meaning 'not') and hilum, a curious old word that referred to a tiny trifle, perhaps the little spot or stalk-mark on a bean, so the whole thing literally meant 'not a jot'. English adopted the clipped form 'nil' in the early nineteenth century, chiefly in record-keeping, accounts, and tallies where a blank or zero entry needed a tidy single word. The same Latin root still lives openly in 'nihilism' and 'annihilate', and that family connection explains why the meaning stays firmly fixed on absolute nothingness. Because it is so short, the only real spelling care is remembering the single l rather than doubling it.

How the word is built

• nil (contraction of Latin nihil: nothing)