zero growth, n.

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

# zero growthnoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zero growth mean?

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

### How common is the noun zero growth?

About 0.09occurrences per million words in modern written English

1900 | 0.0001
1910 | 0.0004
1920 | 0.0005
1930 | 0.0015
1940 | 0.0035
1950 | 0.029
1960 | 0.057
1970 | 0.076
1980 | 0.088
1990 | 0.099
2000 | 0.092
2010 | 0.075

### Where does the noun zero growth come from?

Earliest known use

1900s

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

OED's earliest evidence for zero growth is from 1907, in Journal of Experimental Zoology.

### Nearby entries

1. zero-dimensional, adj. 1880–
2. zero-emission, n. & adj. 1952–
3. zero-energy, adj. 1947–
4. zero-field, adj. 1915–
5. zero-G, adj. & n. 1950–
6. zero grade, n. 1888–
7. zero gravity, n. & adj. 1915–
8. zero-graze, v. 1954–
9. zero-grazed, adj. 1958–
10. zero grazing, n. 1954–
11. zero growth, n.1907–
12. zero hour, n. 1915–
13. zero-hours, adj. 1988–
14. zeroing, n. 1906–
15. zeroize, v. 1894–
16. zero-length, adj. 1945–
17. zero-line, n. 1834–
18. zero magnet, n. 1890–
19. zero mark, n. 1821–
20. zero meridian, n. 1849–
21. zero norm, n. 1966–

## Meaning & use

1. 1907–
   An absence of increase (in population, economic activity or value, etc.); cf. negative growth n.
   1. 1907

      > This decrease was shared by three sets, and two further sets showed zero growth.

      Journal of Experimental Zoology vol. 4 61
   2. 1973

      > The possibility of zero growth in the population of the United States.

      Science 15 June 1143
   3. 2003

      > The eurozone economy registered zero growth in the first quarter.

      Financial Times 7 June 10/1
   economics
   1. famine 1362–
      Extreme and general scarcity of food, in a town, country, etc.; an instance of this, a period of extreme and general dearth.
   2. barrenty a1382–1440
      = barrenness, n.
   3. poverty?1440–
      Deficiency, dearth, scarcity; smallness of amount. Also: want of or deficiency in or of some property, ingredient, etc.; the condition of being…
   4. infertility 1610–
      The quality or condition of being infertile; unfruitfulness, unproductiveness, barrenness.
   5. unfertileness 1611–
   6. non-production 1656–
      The fact of not producing something or of not being produced; lack of production.
   7. non-productiveness 1848–
      The fact or condition of not being productive.
   8. unfructuosity 1884–
      (un-, prefix¹ affix 6; cf. unfructuous, adj.)
   9. zero growth 1907–
      An absence of increase (in population, economic activity or value, etc.); cf. negative growth, n.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Frequency

zero growth typically occurs about 0.09 times per million words in modern written English.

zero growth 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 growth, 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 | 0.0001
1910 | 0.0004
1920 | 0.0005
1930 | 0.0015
1940 | 0.0035
1950 | 0.029
1960 | 0.057
1970 | 0.076
1980 | 0.088
1990 | 0.099
2000 | 0.092
2010 | 0.075

### Frequency of zero growth, n., 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 | 0.064
2018 | 0.068
2019 | 0.06
2020 | 0.067
2021 | 0.076
2022 | 0.072
2023 | 0.071
2024 | 0.084

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

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