zero-based, adj.

zero-based
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zero-based_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2018

# zero-basedadjective

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zero-based mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the adjective zero-based. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.

### How common is the adjective zero-based?

About 0.06occurrences per million words in modern written English

2017 | 0.058
2018 | 0.063
2019 | 0.057
2020 | 0.056
2021 | 0.054
2022 | 0.058
2023 | 0.053
2024 | 0.059

### Where does the adjective zero-based come from?

Earliest known use

1960s

The earliest known use of the adjective zero-based is in the 1960s.

OED's earliest evidence for zero-based is from 1963, in Annual Rep. Government D.C., Fiscal Year 1962.

### Nearby entries

1. zeppole, n. 1835–
2. zepto-, comb. form
3. zeranol, n. 1971–
4. zerda, n. 1780–1860
5. zerk, n. 1926–
6. zero, n. & adj. 1604–
7. zero, v. 1813–
8. zeroable, adj. 1956–
9. zero balance, adj. 1974–
10. zero-base, adj. 1962–
11. zero-based, adj.1963–
12. zero beat, n. 1920–
13. zero-carbon, adj. 1990–
14. zero-coupon, adj. 1979–
15. zero creep, n. 1904–
16. zero crossing, n. 1941–
17. zero day, n. 1917–
18. zero-defect, adj. 1964–
19. zero derivation, n. 1960–
20. zero derivative, adj. & n. 1948–
21. zero-derived, adj. 1971–

## Meaning & use

Originally U.S.

1. 1963–
   (Of a budget or budgeting) having each item costed anew, rather than in relation to its size or status in the previous budget; cf. ZBB n.
   1. 1963

      > Encouragement of the ‘zero-based’ budget and the other improvements being made in the city's budgetary process.

      Annual Rep. Government D.C., Fiscal Year 1962 i. 5/2
   2. 1983

      > Sir Douglas Wass..proposed two specific changes... The first would be to introduce ‘zero-based budgeting’ to make spending departments consider their action if the money available to them were drastically cut.

      Financial Times 10 November 9/1
   3. 2013

      > The Government had introduced a ‘zero-based’ approach to capital spending to ensure value for money for taxpayers.

      Journal (Newcastle) (Nexis) 10 July a14
   accounting U.S. English
   1. zero-base 1962–
      (Of a budget or budgeting) having each item costed anew, rather than in relation to its size or status in the previous budget; cf. ZBB, n.
   2. zero-based 1963–
      (Of a budget or budgeting) having each item costed anew, rather than in relation to its size or status in the previous budget; cf. ZBB, n.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Frequency

zero-based typically occurs about 0.06 times per million words in modern written English.

zero-based is in frequency band 3, which contains words occurring between 0.01 and 0.1 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 zero-based, adj., 1960–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1960 | 0.027
1970 | 0.041
1980 | 0.051
1990 | 0.051
2000 | 0.061
2010 | 0.072

### Frequency of zero-based, adj., 2017–2024

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Modern frequency series are derived from a corpus of 20 billion words, covering the period from 2017 to the present. The corpus is mainly compiled from online news sources, and covers all major varieties of World English.

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 corpus.

Period | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
2017 | 0.058
2018 | 0.063
2019 | 0.057
2020 | 0.056
2021 | 0.054
2022 | 0.058
2023 | 0.053
2024 | 0.059

Originally published as part of the entry for zero, n. & adj.

zero, n. & adj. was revised in June 2018.