zeroth, adj.

zeroth
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zeroth_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2018

# zerothadjective

## Earlier version

- zeroth in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zeroth mean?

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

### How common is the adjective zeroth?

About 0.2occurrences per million words in modern written English

1860 | 0.0002
1870 | 0.0002
1880 | 0.0002
1890 | 0.0006
1900 | 0.0016
1910 | 0.0069
1920 | 0.017
1930 | 0.043
1940 | 0.086
1950 | 0.14
1960 | 0.19
1970 | 0.23
1980 | 0.24
1990 | 0.23
2000 | 0.22
2010 | 0.2

### How is the adjective zeroth pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈzɪərəʊθ/
ZEER-ohth

#### U.S. English

/ˈzɪroʊθ/
ZEER-ohth
/ˈziroʊθ/
ZEER-ohth

### Where does the adjective zeroth come from?

Earliest known use

1850s

The earliest known use of the adjective zeroth is in the 1850s.

OED's earliest evidence for zeroth is from 1850, in the writing of J. Paterson.

zeroth is formed within English, by derivation.

Etymons: zero n., ‑th suffix2.

### Nearby entries

1. zero point, n. 1789–
2. zero-point energy, n. 1913–
3. zero population growth, n. 1955–
4. zero post, n. 1908–
5. zero-power, adj. 1950–
6. zero-rate, v. 1972–
7. zero-rated, adj. 1972–
8. zero rating, n. 1971–
9. zero sound, n. 1957–
10. zero-sum, adj. 1944–
11. zeroth, adj.1850–
12. zero tillage, n. 1963–
13. zero tolerance, n. 1940–
14. zerovalent, adj. 1906–
15. zero waste, adj. & n. 1974–
16. zero-zero, adj. & n. 1930–
17. zerumbet, n. 1640–
18. zest, n.¹ 1674–
19. zest, n.² 1706
20. zest, v. 1702–
21. zest, int. 1705–22

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by derivation.
< zero n. + ‑th suffix2.

## Meaning & use

Science.

1. 1850–
   Of an item in a series: coming before the item conventionally regarded as the first.
   Typically applied to items in a sequence which are regarded as preliminary or representing an initial stage, condition, etc., of something.
   1. 1850

      > We have constructed the following table..by multiplying Aɸ''' by 3, 6 and 2 respectively for power of the second, first and zeroth order.

      J. Paterson, Calculus of Operations v. 93
   2. 1896

      > In order to have the zeroth Bessel normal function, we need only let the conductance and permittance per unit length of cable both vary directly as the distance from x = 0.

      Electrician 10 January 350/2
   3. 1932

      > The zeroth order wave functions which they use do indeed indicate that tetrahedral symmetry should give high stability.

      Physical Review vol. 40 56
   4. 1976

      > In this zeroth part, our topic is the notion of number.

      J. H. Conway, On Numbers & Games 0. 3
   5. 2010

      > So we start with the zeroth derivative, the location of the missile.

      S.–T. Yan & S. Nadis, Shape Inner Space v. 112
   mathematics
   1. intermediate 1648–
      Coming or occurring between two things, places, etc.; ‘holding the middle place or degree between two… In serial order, e.g. of numbers, or in…
   2. converging 1728–
      Mathematics. Applied to an infinite series of terms or numbers, the sum of which, beginning with the first, continually approximates towards a…
   3. convergent 1816–
      Mathematics. = converging, adj. 2, as in convergent series. convergent fractions n. see B
   4. zeroth 1850–
      Of an item in a series: coming before the item conventionally regarded as the first.
   5. tactical 1864–
      Mathematics. Of or pertaining to tactic, n.¹ (sense 3): opposed to logistical, adj.
   6. oscillatory 1893–
      Mathematics. = oscillating, adj. 3.
   7. termwise 1903–
      Designating a mathematical operation performed term by term (see term, n. IV.14c, IV.14b.i).
   8. sociable 1964–
      Mathematics. Designating a cycle of three or more integers such that each is the sum of the factors of the previous one. Cf. amicable number, n., pe…
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈzɪərəʊθ/
ZEER-ohth

### U.S. English

/ˈzɪroʊθ/
ZEER-ohth
/ˈziroʊθ/
ZEER-ohth

####

##### 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

## Forms

### Variant forms

1. 1800s–
   zeroth
2. 1900s–
   zero'th (rare)

## Frequency

zeroth typically occurs about 0.2 times per million words in modern written English.

zeroth 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 zeroth, adj., 1860–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1860 | 0.0002
1870 | 0.0002
1880 | 0.0002
1890 | 0.0006
1900 | 0.0016
1910 | 0.0069
1920 | 0.017
1930 | 0.043
1940 | 0.086
1950 | 0.14
1960 | 0.19
1970 | 0.23
1980 | 0.24
1990 | 0.23
2000 | 0.22
2010 | 0.2

zeroth, adj. was revised in June 2018.

zeroth, adj. was last modified in July 2023.