zero-field, adj.

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

# zero-fieldadjective

## Factsheet

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

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

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

About 0.05occurrences per million words in modern written English

1910 | 0.0027
1920 | 0.0058
1930 | 0.018
1940 | 0.025
1950 | 0.033
1960 | 0.041
1970 | 0.047
1980 | 0.054
1990 | 0.06
2000 | 0.056
2010 | 0.052

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

Earliest known use

1910s

The earliest known use of the adjective zero-field is in the 1910s.

OED's earliest evidence for zero-field is from 1915, in the writing of Fannie Farmer.

### Nearby entries

1. zero creep, n. 1904–
2. zero crossing, n. 1941–
3. zero day, n. 1917–
4. zero-defect, adj. 1964–
5. zero derivation, n. 1960–
6. zero derivative, adj. & n. 1948–
7. zero-derived, adj. 1971–
8. zero-dimensional, adj. 1880–
9. zero-emission, n. & adj. 1952–
10. zero-energy, adj. 1947–
11. zero-field, adj.1915–
12. zero-G, adj. & n. 1950–
13. zero grade, n. 1888–
14. zero gravity, n. & adj. 1915–
15. zero-graze, v. 1954–
16. zero-grazed, adj. 1958–
17. zero grazing, n. 1954–
18. zero growth, n. 1907–
19. zero hour, n. 1915–
20. zero-hours, adj. 1988–
21. zeroing, n. 1906–

## Meaning & use

1. 1915–
   attributive designating a property, phenomenon, etc., relating to a condition in which a magnetic or other field is absent, or has an intensity of zero.
   1. 1915

      > When the two frequencies are different, this position is constantly changing and the pointer will rotate ‘fast’ or ‘slow’, coming to rest at the zero-field position when the frequencies are equal.

      F. M. Farmer in F. F. Fowle, Standard Handbook Electr. Engineers (ed. 4) iii. 184
   2. 1967

      > The zero-field emission is obtained by prolonging the straight asymptote of the Schottky plots to the V = 0 line.

      British Journal Applied Physics vol. 18 629
   3. 2004

      > We employ the terminology of the negative magneto-resistance wherever the B field reduces the zero-field resistance.

      K. Nakamura & T. Harayama, Quantum Chaos & Quantum Dots ix. 162

## Frequency

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

zero-field 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-field, adj., 1910–2010

* 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
--- | ---
1910 | 0.0027
1920 | 0.0058
1930 | 0.018
1940 | 0.025
1950 | 0.033
1960 | 0.041
1970 | 0.047
1980 | 0.054
1990 | 0.06
2000 | 0.056
2010 | 0.052

### Frequency of zero-field, 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 | 0.0026
2018 | 0.0039
2019 | 0.0075
2020 | 0.014
2021 | 0.019
2022 | 0.024
2023 | 0.028
2024 | 0.03

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

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