Zeros

How to spell zeros

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce zeros

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does zeros mean?

1. nounMore than one of the digit or number 0.
2. verbAdjusts an instrument to read zero, or homes in on a target (third-person singular present).

Zeros in a sentence

• noun

  The spreadsheet column was filled with zeros where no sales had been recorded.

• verb

  The technician always zeros the scale before weighing each parcel.

• noun

  The lottery ticket had a long run of zeros at the end of the code.

• verb

  The analyst quickly zeros in on the one figure that did not add up.

Where does zeros come from?

Language of origin: Arabic

The word traces back to the Arabic sifr, which literally meant 'empty' or 'nothing' and was used by mathematicians for the symbol marking an empty place in a number. When the concept travelled into medieval Europe it was rendered in Medieval Latin as zephirum, and Italian then smoothed this into zero. English borrowed the Italian form in the early 1600s, alongside its close cousin 'cipher', which descends from the very same Arabic sifr. The plural in English has long wavered between 'zeros' and 'zeroes', much as 'heros' once competed with 'heroes'; the spelling here, ending plainly in -os, is the form many style guides now prefer for the number. Knowing that the root simply means 'empty' is a neat reminder of why the digit stands for nothing at all.

How the word is built

• zero (the number/digit)
• -s (plural noun ending, also third-person singular verb ending)