Names for the number 0

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There are several names for the number 0 in different languages.

LanguageName and pronunciation
or transliteration
Notes
Arabic صفر (sifr)
Chinese The character 零 (pinyin: líng) means "zero" in Chinese, although 〇 is also common. Etymologically 零 is an onomatopoeic word for "light rain". The upper part of the character is 雨, meaning "rain", and the lower part is 令 (lìng), for the sound. [1]
Czech nula
Dutch nul /nyl/
English zero There are many other names
French zéro /zeʁo/
German Null/nullWhether or not the first letter of number names is capitalized – like all nouns are – depends on the sense in which they are used. [2]
Greek μηδέν /miːðɛn/Literally meaning "not even one"
Gujarati શૂન્ય (Śūn'ya)
Haitian Creole zewo
Hindi शून्य
Hebrew אֶפֶס (efes)
Indonesian nol /nɔl/Adopted from the Dutch word nul. In addition, people often pronounce it as "kosong" /kɔsɔŋ/, literally meaning 'empty', when spelling telephone numbers.
Japanese 零 (read rei)The character 零 (read rei) means "zero" in Japanese, although 〇 is also common. However, in common usage, ゼロ/ぜろ (read zero) is preferred, as it is a direct adaptation of the English equivalent.
Kannada ಸೊನ್ನ (sonne)
Korean Korean : ; Hanja : ; RR : yeong
or
Korean : ; Hanja : ; RR : gong
Lojban no
Malayalam പൂജ്യം (poojyam)
Polish zero /'zɛɾɔ/
Portuguese zero /zɛɾu/
Romanian zero
Russian ноль
Spanish cero
Tamil சுழியம் (sūḻiyam), பூஜ்ஜியம் (poojyam), or சைவர் (saivar)
Telugu సున్న or ౦ (sunna)
Turkish sıfır [3]
Ukrainian нуль

References

  1. Chinese character etymology
  2. "Duden | Groß- oder Kleinschreibung von Grundzahlen". www.duden.de (in German). Retrieved 2024-03-28.
  3. Çoker, Doğan, and Timur Karaçay. Matematik Terimleri Sözlüğü. Ankara: Türk Dil Kurumu Yayınları, 1983. Print.