Complete lack of tolerance for something; a stated policy of non-acceptance with regard to a specified situation, activity, substance, etc.
1940
Northern states have set ‘zero tolerance’ as the goal for certified seed potatoes which are as free of the disease as in humanly possible.
Lawrence (Kansas) Daily Jrnl.-World 14 February 1/8
1963
Heptachlor..is even more toxic and has been given a ‘zero tolerance’ by the FDA; that is, not even the slightest trace of heptachlor is permitted on food.
Popular Mechanics June 87/1
1972
Federal officials..say the calculations..were based on ‘assuming zero tolerance’ from now on for ineligibility and overpayments.
New York Times 6 December 22/1
1993
It can establish a zero tolerance that means none of the chemical is permitted in any crop.
R. L. Zimdahl, Fundamentals of Weed Science xviii. 369
2001
It measures its performance on zero tolerance of cancellations, but allows trains to run four hours late.
spec. Complete lack of tolerance for, or non-acceptance of, abusive, anti-social, or criminal behaviour, esp. the use of illegal drugs, typically enforced by strict and uncompromising application of the law; a stated policy of this kind, designed to eliminate such behaviour.
1972
We need strong leadership from young officers and so we have zero tolerance for pot here.
El Paso (Texas) Herald-Post 13 June d1/4
1981
There is what is called a ‘zero tolerance’ for any form of drug use among nuclear sub crewmen.
Associated Press Newswire (Nexis) 14 July
1988
The Reagan administration calls its new drug policy ‘zero tolerance’, meaning that planes, vehicles and vessels may be confiscated for carrying even the smallest amount of a controlled substance.
Time Australia (Sydney) 23 May 49/2
1993
Ms. Campbell said that her government will show ‘zero tolerance’ of violence against women.
Globe & Mail (Toronto) 31 August a4/1
2008
There are boundaries you cannot cross and one is this country's zero tolerance on knives.
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.
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.
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
Frequency
zero tolerance typically occurs about 0.2 times per million words in modern written English.
zero tolerance 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 zero tolerance, n., 1940–2010
* 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
1940
0.0058
1950
0.011
1960
0.012
1970
0.03
1980
0.11
1990
0.2
2000
0.24
2010
0.31
Frequency of zero tolerance, 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
3.4
2018
3.1
2019
3.0
2020
2.2
2021
2.0
2022
2.1
2023
1.9
2024
1.9
Compounds & derived words
1960–
General attributive, as zero-tolerance approach, zero-tolerance policy, etc.
1960
The federal government stepped up the enforcement of the ‘zero tolerance’ rule for antibiotics.
Adams County (Iowa) Free Press 4 February 4/3
1986
A proposed new Drug-Free School Act, or ‘the Zero-Tolerance Act’.
Associated Press Newswire (Nexis) 15 September
1997
The Labour leader pledged his support for ‘zero tolerance’ schemes pioneered in New York..in which the police target even the most minor criminal behaviour.
Daily Telegraph 7 January 1/2
2009
The city's zero-tolerance policy towards petty crime has long eradicated painted graffiti from the trains.