zeroing, n.

zeroing
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zeroing_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2018

# zeroingnoun

## Earlier version

- zeroing, vbl. n. in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zeroing mean?

There are three meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun zeroing. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

zeroing has developed meanings and uses in subjects including

measurement (1900s) gunnery and firearms (1900s) linguistics (1950s)

### How common is the noun zeroing?

About 0.1occurrences per million words in modern written English

1900 | 0.0003
1910 | 0.0005
1920 | 0.0021
1930 | 0.0063
1940 | 0.017
1950 | 0.035
1960 | 0.061
1970 | 0.083
1980 | 0.1
1990 | 0.12
2000 | 0.13
2010 | 0.13

### How is the noun zeroing pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzɪərəʊɪŋ/
ZEER-oh-ing

#### U.S. English

/ˈzɪroʊɪŋ/
ZEER-oh-ing
/ˈziroʊɪŋ/
ZEER-oh-ing

### Where does the noun zeroing come from?

Earliest known use

1900s

The earliest known use of the noun zeroing is in the 1900s.

OED's earliest evidence for zeroing is from 1906, in the Electrician.

zeroing is formed within English, by derivation.

Etymons: zero n., ‑ing suffix1; zero v., ‑ing suffix1.

### Nearby entries

1. zero-field, adj. 1915–
2. zero-G, adj. & n. 1950–
3. zero grade, n. 1888–
4. zero gravity, n. & adj. 1915–
5. zero-graze, v. 1954–
6. zero-grazed, adj. 1958–
7. zero grazing, n. 1954–
8. zero growth, n. 1907–
9. zero hour, n. 1915–
10. zero-hours, adj. 1988–
11. zeroing, n.1906–
12. zeroize, v. 1894–
13. zero-length, adj. 1945–
14. zero-line, n. 1834–
15. zero magnet, n. 1890–
16. zero mark, n. 1821–
17. zero meridian, n. 1849–
18. zero norm, n. 1966–
19. zero option, n. 1976–
20. zero-order, adj. 1919–
21. zero plane, n. 1842–

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by derivation.
Etymons: zero n., ‑ing suffix1; zero v., ‑ing suffix1.
Originally < zero n. + ‑ing suffix1.

In later use also partly < zero v. + ‑ing suffix1.

## Meaning & use

1. 1. 1.a.
      1906–
      The adjustment of an instrument or device to give a reading of zero, esp. for the purposes of calibration.
      1. 1906

         > The device was disused for most work eventually owing to the very slow zeroing of the pointer.

         Electrician 6 April 1021/1
      2. 1948

         > The meter should..indicate this value correctly. If it does not, the zeroing operation is again carried out and a recalibration made.

         American Journal of Psychology vol. 61 409
      3. 1975

         > A process-control computer..has been extended to control zeroing of selected instrument transmitters to improve the accuracy of the input.

         Chemical Engineering 10 November 223/1
      4. 2011

         > Automatic zeroing compensates both real and imaginary components.

         J. Pokorný et al. in E. Petrovský et al., Earth's Magn. Interior xx. 294/2
      measurement
      1. calibration 1871–
         The action or process of calibrating. Also, a set of graduations or markings; a classification. Also attributive.
      2. zeroizing 1903–
      3. zeroing 1906–
         The adjustment of an instrument or device to give a reading of zero, esp. for the purposes of calibration.
      4. auto-zeroing 1967–
         a. n. The automatic adjustment of an instrument to give a zero reading or zero input; b. adj. (of a device) that has this facility.
      View in Historical Thesaurus
   2. 1.b.
      1908–
      The action or process of adjusting the sights of a rifle; the manner or position in which the sights of a rifle are set. Cf. zero v. 2. Frequently attributive.
      1. 1908

         > The Zeroing of Military Rifles.—One of the most difficult..problems of the rifle is that which concerns the ascertainment of the zero angle.

         Arms & Explosives August 99/2
      2. 1917

         > During the zeroing performance at short range, the Mark VII bullet with its aluminum nose did a queer thing.

         Arms & Man 8 February 386/2
      3. 1931

         > The majority are content to fire a few shots at the zeroing range with the idea of finding out if the sights are set straight.

         Times 13 April 7/5
      4. 1975

         > On the rifle were telescopic sights... He would..fire a few rounds and check the zeroing.

         V. Canning, Kingsford Mark v. 83
      5. 2012

         > A sniper might well take out the bolt to clean it but he would not..remove the telescopic sights from the receiver to avoid spoiling the zeroing.

         R. Stirling, Special Forces Sniper Skills iii. 88
      gunnery and firearms
      1. fine boring 1789–
         The action or process of smoothing the inside of a bore (bore, n.¹ I.2a) in a metallic object, esp. the barrel of a gun.
      2. chambering 1827–
         The size or arrangement of the chambers (chamber, n. II.9c) of a gun; the provision of chambers.
      3. percussioning 1846–70
         The fitting or adaptation of a firearm so that it may be fired by percussion (percussion, n. 4).
      4. coiling 1862–
         The winding of a bar into a coil for a gun; cf. coil, n.³ 5. Also attributive.
      5. reinforcing 1868–
         The action of strengthening a person or thing (in various senses of reinforce, v.).
      6. actioning 1871–
         The furnishing of a gun with an action; a manner of doing this. Cf. action, n. II.19d.
      7. blowing 1881–
         (See quot. 1881.)
      8. tubage 1882–
         Ordnance. The insertion of an inner tube or lining in the bore of a cannon; also, the process of shrinking an outer tube on an inner bore.
      9. flint-knapping 1887–
         Fashioning flints (for gun-locks, etc.).
      10. chase-hooping 1888–
      11. zeroing 1908–
          The action or process of adjusting the sights of a rifle; the manner or position in which the sights of a rifle are set. Cf. zero, v. 2. Frequently…
      12. sighting-in 1958–
          sighting-in, the action of correcting the sights of a firearm, etc. Cf. sight, v.¹ 3b. North American.
      View in Historical Thesaurus
2. 2.
   1956–
   Linguistics. The omission or deletion of part of a linguistic form or structure.
   1. 1956

      > In all or nearly all dialects the first of two contiguous unstressed vowels may or may not be modified by shortening and/or raising or zeroing.

      Language vol. 32 645
   2. 1970

      > It is convenient to treat such clauses as derived by context-governed deletion from full clauses like them in every respect save the presence of such constituents. The term ‘zeroing’ will be reserved for such discourse deletion.

      J. W. Gair, Colloquial Sinhalese Clause Structures iv. 54
   3. 2007

      > This zeroing does not normally occur in KS [= Koyraboro Senni].

      Nat. Lang. & Ling. Theory vol. 25 93
   linguistics

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzɪərəʊɪŋ/
ZEER-oh-ing

### U.S. English

/ˈzɪroʊɪŋ/
ZEER-oh-ing
/ˈziroʊɪŋ/
ZEER-oh-ing

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- ɬrhingyll
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛtl/ but /ˈpɛtl̩i/.

##### Vowels

- iːfleece
- ihappy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- atrap, bath
- ɑːstart, palm, bath
- ɒlot
- ɔːthought, force
- ʌstrut
- ʊfoot
- uːgoose
- əletter
- əːnurse
- ɪənear
- ɛːsquare
- ʊəcure
- eɪface
- ʌɪpride
- aʊmouth
- əʊgoat
- ɔɪvoice
- ãgratin
- ɒ̃salon
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
- ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)

##### Other symbols

- The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
- The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
- Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.

View the pronunciation model here.

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye*
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing

* /d/ also represents a 'tapped' /t/ as in

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛd(ə)l/ but /ˈpɛdl̩i/.

##### Vowels

- ifleece, happy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- ætrap, bath
- ɑlot, palm, cloth, thought
- ɑrstart
- ɔcloth, thought
- ɔrnorth, force
- ʊfoot
- ugoose
- əstrut, comma
- ərnurse, letter
- ɪ(ə)rnear
- ɛ(ə)rsquare
- ʊ(ə)rcure
- eɪface
- aɪpride
- aʊmouth
- oʊgoat
- ɔɪvoice
- ɑ̃gratin
- æ̃salon
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
- ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)

##### Other symbols

- The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
- The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
- Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.

View the pronunciation model here.

####

Simple text respell breaks words into syllables, separated by a hyphen. The syllable which carries the primary stress is written in capital letters. This key covers both British and U.S. English Simple Text Respell.

##### Consonants

b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w and z have their standard English values

- gguy
- jjay
- yyore
- chchore
- khloch
- shshore
- ththaw
- dhthee
- zhbeige

##### Vowels

- atrap
- ahpalm
- airsquare
- arstart
- arrcarry (British only)
- awthought
- ayface
- a(ng)gratin
- edress
- eefleece
- eerdeer
- errmerry
- ikit
- ighpride
- irrmirror
- olot (British only)
- ohgoat
- oogoose
- oorcure
- orforce
- orrsorry (British only)
- owmouth
- oyvoice
- o(ng)salon
- ustrut
- uhletter
- urnurse
- urrhurry
- uufoot

## Frequency

zeroing typically occurs about 0.1 times per million words in modern written English.

zeroing is in frequency band 4, which contains words occurring between 0.1 and 1 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands

Frequency data is computed programmatically, and should be regarded as an estimate.

### Frequency of zeroing, n., 1900–2010

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Historical frequency series are derived from Google Books Ngrams (version 2), a data set based on the Google Books corpus of several million books printed in English between 1500 and 2010.

The overall frequency for a given word is calculated by summing frequencies for the main form of the word, any plural or inflected forms, and any major spelling variations.

For sets of homographs (distinct entries that share the same word-form, e.g. mole, n.¹, mole, n.², mole, n.³, etc.), we have estimated the frequency of each homograph entry as a fraction of the total Ngrams frequency for the word-form. This may result in inaccuracies.

Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the Google Books corpus.

Decade | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
1900 | 0.0003
1910 | 0.0005
1920 | 0.0021
1930 | 0.0063
1940 | 0.017
1950 | 0.035
1960 | 0.061
1970 | 0.083
1980 | 0.1
1990 | 0.12
2000 | 0.13
2010 | 0.13

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. auto-zeroing, n. & adj. 1967–
   a. n. The automatic adjustment of an instrument…

zeroing, n. was revised in June 2018.

zeroing, n. was last modified in June 2024.