zero-rate, v.

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

# zero-rateverb

## Factsheet

### What does the verb zero-rate mean?

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

### How common is the verb zero-rate?

About 0.02occurrences per million words in modern written English

2017 | 0.027
2018 | 0.032
2019 | 0.032
2020 | 0.031
2021 | 0.023
2022 | 0.023
2023 | 0.017
2024 | 0.012

### Where does the verb zero-rate come from?

Earliest known use

1970s

The earliest known use of the verb zero-rate is in the 1970s.

OED's earliest evidence for zero-rate is from 1972, in the Daily Telegraph (London).

### Nearby entries

1. zero meridian, n. 1849–
2. zero norm, n. 1966–
3. zero option, n. 1976–
4. zero-order, adj. 1919–
5. zero plane, n. 1842–
6. zero point, n. 1789–
7. zero-point energy, n. 1913–
8. zero population growth, n. 1955–
9. zero post, n. 1908–
10. zero-power, adj. 1950–
11. zero-rate, v.1972–
12. zero-rated, adj. 1972–
13. zero rating, n. 1971–
14. zero sound, n. 1957–
15. zero-sum, adj. 1944–
16. zeroth, adj. 1850–
17. zero tillage, n. 1963–
18. zero tolerance, n. 1940–
19. zerovalent, adj. 1906–
20. zero waste, adj. & n. 1974–
21. zero-zero, adj. & n. 1930–

## Meaning & use

1. 1972–
   transitive to assess (a product or service) for value added tax or other sales tax at a rate of zero.
   1. 1972

      > Zero-rating a transaction, rather than exempting it, is advantageous, because a trader is allowed credit for any VAT paid on his inputs.

      Daily Telegraph 22 March 19/3
   2. 1990

      > If distributional objectives are the only justification for zero rating goods, these objectives can better be achieved through the social security system.

      Taxation & Environmental Policy (IFS Commentary No. 19) 10
   3. 2011

      > The proposal to zero-rate books would benefit upper-to-high income groups instead of the poor.

      Mercury (South Africa) (Nexis) 28 March 8
   economics and commerce
   1. zero-rate 1972–
      transitive to assess (a product or service) for value added tax or other sales tax at a rate of zero.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Frequency

zero-rate typically occurs about 0.02 times per million words in modern written English.

zero-rate 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-rate, v., 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 | 0.015
1980 | 0.017
1990 | 0.017
2000 | 0.017
2010 | 0.019

### Frequency of zero-rate, v., 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 | 0.027
2018 | 0.032
2019 | 0.032
2020 | 0.031
2021 | 0.023
2022 | 0.023
2023 | 0.017
2024 | 0.012

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

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