zero-carbon, adj.

zero-carbon
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zero-carbon_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 2018

# zero-carbonadjective

## Factsheet

### What does the adjective zero-carbon mean?

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

### How common is the adjective zero-carbon?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

2017 | 0.18
2018 | 0.24
2019 | 0.33
2020 | 0.42
2021 | 0.48
2022 | 0.48
2023 | 0.5
2024 | 0.43

### Where does the adjective zero-carbon come from?

Earliest known use

1990s

The earliest known use of the adjective zero-carbon is in the 1990s.

OED's earliest evidence for zero-carbon is from 1990, in International Affairs.

### Nearby entries

1. zeranol, n. 1971–
2. zerda, n. 1780–1860
3. zerk, n. 1926–
4. zero, n. & adj. 1604–
5. zero, v. 1813–
6. zeroable, adj. 1956–
7. zero balance, adj. 1974–
8. zero-base, adj. 1962–
9. zero-based, adj. 1963–
10. zero beat, n. 1920–
11. zero-carbon, adj.1990–
12. zero-coupon, adj. 1979–
13. zero creep, n. 1904–
14. zero crossing, n. 1941–
15. zero day, n. 1917–
16. zero-defect, adj. 1964–
17. zero derivation, n. 1960–
18. zero derivative, adj. & n. 1948–
19. zero-derived, adj. 1971–
20. zero-dimensional, adj. 1880–
21. zero-emission, n. & adj. 1952–

## Meaning & use

1. 1990–
   Producing, causing, or resulting in no emission, or no net emission, of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere; cf. carbon-neutral adj.
   1. 1990

      > The idea of a carbon tax is simple: by applying a tax to emissions of carbon, those emissions are discouraged and the economic standing of low- or zero-carbon processes improved.

      International Affairs vol. 66 79
   2. 2008

      > A carbon-neutral home, unlike a zero-carbon home, may use some fossil fuels, as long as its energy use does not result in an increase in total atmospheric carbon dioxide.

      Independent 3 September (Property section) 7/3

## Frequency

zero-carbon typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.

zero-carbon is in frequency band 2, which contains words occurring between 0.001 and 0.01 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-carbon, adj., 1990–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1990 | 0.0024
2000 | 0.0024
2010 | 0.0024

### Frequency of zero-carbon, adj., 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 | 0.18
2018 | 0.24
2019 | 0.33
2020 | 0.42
2021 | 0.48
2022 | 0.48
2023 | 0.5
2024 | 0.43

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

zero-carbon, adj. was first published in 2018.