(líng) - zero, nought in Mandarin
língTraditional: 零
Translation
zero, nought
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Word origin
零 is a phono-semantic compound built on the 雨 rain radical with 令 (lìng) for the sound. It first meant a fine drizzle, then odds and remnants, and only later the mathematical nought.
- Origin
- phono-semantic compound
- Root
- 雨 (rain radical) + 令 (lìng, phonetic)
Stroke order
零
Examples
。
Today it is minus five degrees.
。
He scored zero.
。
Start from scratch.
。
There are three noughts in my phone number.
。
It is zero degrees now.
零 (líng) is zero. It is the digit you need for temperatures, scores, prices and phone numbers: 零下五度 (líng xià wǔ dù) is minus five degrees, and 从零开始 (cóng líng kāi shǐ) is the everyday way of saying "start from scratch".
Two habits are worth picking up early. In a spoken number, 零 fills an internal gap rather than being skipped over, so 105 is read 一零五 (yī líng wǔ). And digit strings such as years and phone numbers are read out one digit at a time, which is why 2025 comes out as 二零二五年 (èr líng èr wǔ nián) rather than as two thousand and twenty-five.
You will also meet the plain circle 〇 on forms, in dates and in newspaper headlines. It is the same word with a simpler shape, and it is read líng exactly like 零.
Where this fits
Used in
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Mandarin · Free printables
零: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "零" (zero, nought): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
This word is taught in chapter 2, lesson 1: 零, 的, 我 and 10 more words.