zero balance, adj.

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

# zero balanceadjective

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zero balance mean?

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

### How common is the adjective zero balance?

About 0.05occurrences per million words in modern written English

1970 | 0.05
1980 | 0.05
1990 | 0.05
2000 | 0.05
2010 | 0.055

### Where does the adjective zero balance come from?

Earliest known use

1970s

The earliest known use of the adjective zero balance is in the 1970s.

OED's earliest evidence for zero balance is from 1974, in U.S. Investor/Eastern Banker.

### Nearby entries

1. Zeppelinistic, adj. 1930–
2. Zeppelinite, n. 1909–
3. zeppole, n. 1835–
4. zepto-, comb. form
5. zeranol, n. 1971–
6. zerda, n. 1780–1860
7. zerk, n. 1926–
8. zero, n. & adj. 1604–
9. zero, v. 1813–
10. zeroable, adj. 1956–
11. zero balance, adj.1974–
12. zero-base, adj. 1962–
13. zero-based, adj. 1963–
14. zero beat, n. 1920–
15. zero-carbon, adj. 1990–
16. zero-coupon, adj. 1979–
17. zero creep, n. 1904–
18. zero crossing, n. 1941–
19. zero day, n. 1917–
20. zero-defect, adj. 1964–
21. zero derivation, n. 1960–

## Meaning & use

Banking.

1. 1974–
   (Of a bank account) operated with no continuing balance, funds being transferred to it only to the extent required to meet the withdrawals made.
   1. 1974

      > With a Zero Balance account, a customer will pay a small charge for actual activity.

      U.S. Investor/Eastern Banker 26 August 42/2
   2. 1983

      > A controlled disbursement account is a type that bankers call a ‘zero balance account’—it contains no cash at the end of the day after all checks have been paid. There are no funds left idle.

      Fortune 18 April 76/2
   3. 1996

      > We will open a zero balance account on the right basis.

      Financial Times 19 June (Private Banking section) 3/2
   accounting banking
   1. uncrossed a1616–90
      Not obliterated or cancelled. (See cross, v. 4.)
   2. running 1696–
      Of an account, contract, etc.: that remains operative or effective for a certain (specified or indefinite) length of time. Also: (esp. of a lease)…
   3. liquidated 1727–
   4. overdrawn 1845–
      Banking. Designating or relating to an account that has been overdrawn; (also) designating a person who has overdrawn his or her account.
   5. discretionary 1885–
      Finance. Designating an account, investment portfolio, etc., managed with complete autonomy by a stockbroker or other investment manager on behalf…
   6. zero balance 1974–
      (Of a bank account) operated with no continuing balance, funds being transferred to it only to the extent required to meet the withdrawals made.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Frequency

zero balance typically occurs about 0.05 times per million words in modern written English.

zero balance 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 balance, adj., 1970–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1970 | 0.05
1980 | 0.05
1990 | 0.05
2000 | 0.05
2010 | 0.055

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

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