ZERO

The most common way to refer to nothing as a number is zero or nought. (Nought is more common in British English.)

Zero comes from Arabic sifr (meaning ’empty’), which lives on in French chiffre and Swedish siffra. Italian zefiro comes from zephyrum, used by the mathematician Fibonacci.

OH (the letter O)

Especially when saying telephone numbers or dates, OH is used

10603 ’one oh six oh three’ or ’one zero six zero three’
1605 sixteen oh five

And then, of course, we have the well-known secret agent James Bond, 007 ’double oh seven’.

NIL

Nil is used in sports, especially in team games.

At half-time, the score was two–nil.

American English prefers nothing to nil.

The score was three to nothing.

Nil is also used in business language.

The economy is expected to see nil growth next year.

Nil comes from Latin nihil or nihilum, which meant nothing.

LOVE

In tennis scoring, love means zero. At the start of a game, the score is love–all. Six–love is called a bagel. Concerning the origin of the word love in tennis, one theory suggests that it may have come from the French l’oeuf, meaning egg. A zero could easily resemble an egg. However, this theory is disputed. There is no documented use of l’oeuf in sports meaning zero. On the other hand, zero on a scoreboard is also called a goose egg or, especially in cricket, a duck egg or a duck.

DUCK

When a batsman in cricket does not score any points (also called runs), it is called a duck egg or a duck.

NADA, ZILCH, ZIP

These are all slang words to denote nothing. Nada comes from Spanish nothing. Zilch was a comic character in an American magazine. The word could also have come from US college slang. Zip also comes from student slang, denoting a zero grade on a test.

NULL

Null is used in mathematics to represent the absence of something or the value of zero.

The word is also used in the legal phrase null and void, which implies that a contract, an agreement, etc., is not legally valid.

CIPHER

Cipher usually means a code or an encoded numeral or letter. It can also mean zero and is often used figuratively to refer to a nobody, someone of no consequence. The word is related to French chiffre and Swedish siffra. It is sometimes spelled cypher in British English.

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