零 líng

零 simplified

零 traditional · same

líng

zero · a fractional remainder · falling raindrops

HSK 2 笔画 13 部首雨 (rain) 声调第二声 (rising) all ling readings →

~8 min read

笔顺 bǐshùn · Stroke order

部首 radical (雨) 部件 component (rest of character) 书写 your drawing

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字源 zìyuán Etymology & Structure

字源洞见 zìyuán dòngjiàn · Etymological Insight

零 has nothing to do with the number zero at its root. It is a weather word. The character is built from 雨 yǔ (rain) over the phonetic 令 líng, and its original meaning was rain falling in scattered drops, a light or intermittent rain. The Shuowen Jiezi glosses it as 余雨, "lingering rain," the last drops that fall after the main shower has passed.

From falling rain came the sense of scattering and dropping away. Things 零落 (língluò) when they fall and disperse, as leaves and flowers do in autumn, or as a family or fortune declines and breaks apart. This gave 零 its enduring connotations of the scattered, the fragmentary, the leftover, all flowing from the image of rain coming down in stray, separate drops rather than in a unified sheet.

The radical is 雨, the rain that sits over the top of the character, and the structure is transparent: rain (meaning) plus 令 (sound). The mathematical sense of zero, the meaning a modern learner meets first, is the last and most abstract layer to attach to this old weather graph.

字形分析 zìxíng fēnxī · Character Analysis 雨 · rain, the semantic radical at the top
令 · líng, the phonetic component below, lending the sound
零 · "rain falling in drops" → scattered, fragmentary, leftover → zero

零与整 líng yǔ zhěng Remainder and Whole — the Fractional, the Leftover

零整之分 líng zhěng zhī fēn · the broken-up against the whole

Long before 零 settled into meaning mathematical zero, it carried the sense of the odd remainder, the small fractional amount left over after the round numbers are accounted for. This is the meaning at work in 零 as "and a bit": 一百零五 (one hundred and five), where 零 marks the small leftover beyond the round hundred, and 三块零五分 (three yuan and five fen), where it separates the whole from the small change.

The deepest opposition in the character's everyday life is 零 against 整 zhěng (whole, entire, in one piece). To 化整为零 (huà zhěng wéi líng) is to break a whole into scattered pieces, the classic tactic of dispersing a large force into small units, or a large sum into installments. To 化零为整 reverses it, gathering scattered parts back into a whole. 整数 is a whole number; 零数 is the fractional remainder.

This whole-versus-fragment sense shapes a wide range of common words. 零钱 (small change), 零食 (snacks, the bits eaten between whole meals), 零件 (spare parts, the separate pieces of a machine), 零售 (retail, selling in small lots rather than wholesale), 零工 (odd jobs). In every case 零 means the small, scattered, piecemeal portion, the inheritance of those original stray raindrops.

数字零 shùzì líng The Late Arrival of Zero — the Placeholder and 〇

零的数学意义 líng de shùxué yìyì · how Chinese counted without a zero

One of the striking facts about Chinese numerals is that the traditional system needed no zero for a very long time. Because numbers were written with explicit unit-words (三千五百, "three-thousand five-hundred"), there was no empty column to fill: the units themselves marked the place value, so a missing rank could simply be named or skipped. Where a gap did need marking (as in 一百零五, one hundred and five, with no tens), 零 was pressed into service in its "and a small remainder" sense.

The dedicated symbol for zero as a placeholder, the small circle 〇, entered Chinese mathematics relatively late, becoming established in the Song dynasty, in part under the influence of Indian and later Western mathematics where positional notation made a zero essential. The circle 〇 is still used today alongside 零 to write the digit, especially in years and serial numbers: 二〇二六年 (the year 2026) is read èr líng èr liù nián. Both 〇 and 零 are read líng.

So the character a learner first meets as the plain digit "0" carries a long and roundabout history: a weather word for scattered rain, then the odd fractional remainder, and only at the end the abstract mathematical nothing, borrowed onto an old graph because its existing sense of "the small leftover" sat closest to the idea of an empty place.

核心构词 héxīn gòucí Key 零 Compounds

零下 língxià below zero; sub-zero (temperature)

N 名词 míngcí

零 líng (zero) + 下 xià (below). Below zero degrees, the standard way to state freezing temperatures: 零下十度 (minus ten degrees). Its counterpart 零上 (above zero) is less often said, since positive temperatures are usually given as a bare number. A clean example of 零 as the modern mathematical zero, the fixed point from which the scale is measured up and down.

今天气温降到了零下五度。

Jīntiān qìwēn jiàng dào le língxià wǔ dù.

The temperature dropped to minus five degrees today.

零钱 língqián small change; pocket money

N 名词 míngcí

零 líng (small, fractional) + 钱 qián (money). The small leftover money, coins and small notes, change. 找零 (zhǎolíng) is to give change in a transaction; 零花钱 (línghuāqián) is spending money or pocket money. Here 零 keeps its old "small fractional remainder" sense rather than meaning zero: the bits of money beyond the round amounts.

不好意思，我没有零钱。

Bù hǎoyìsi, wǒ méiyǒu língqián.

Sorry, I don't have any small change.

零食 língshí snacks; between-meal food

N 名词 míngcí

零 líng (small, piecemeal) + 食 shí (food). The bits eaten between whole meals: snacks, nibbles, treats. 吃零食 is to snack. The word reflects 零's sense of the scattered and fractional, food taken in small odd amounts rather than as a proper sit-down meal (整餐). A high-frequency everyday word, especially in talk about diet and children.

她很喜欢吃零食。

Tā hěn xǐhuan chī língshí.

She loves eating snacks.

零件 língjiàn spare parts; components

N 名词 míngcí

零 líng (separate, piecemeal) + 件 jiàn (item; piece). The individual components of a machine, the separate parts that assemble into a whole: 汽车零件 (auto parts), 备用零件 (spare parts). Again 零 means the scattered, separable pieces rather than zero. The contrast is with the assembled, integral 整体 (the whole).

这台机器的零件很难买到。

Zhè tái jīqì de língjiàn hěn nán mǎi dào.

Parts for this machine are hard to find.

零落 língluò to wither and fall; scattered; declined and broken up

V/Adj 动/形

零 líng (to fall in drops) + 落 luò (to fall; to drop). Closest to the character's root: things falling and scattering. Of flowers and leaves, to wither and drop; of people, families, or fortunes, to scatter and decline (家道零落, the household fallen on hard times). A literary word carrying autumn melancholy, the sense of once-whole things now dispersed and diminished.

秋风起，落叶零落满地。

Qiūfēng qǐ, luòyè língluò mǎn dì.

The autumn wind rose, and fallen leaves lay scattered across the ground.

成语 chéngyǔ Idioms & Set Phrases

化整为零 huà zhěng wéi líng "turn the whole into pieces" — to break something large into small scattered parts 化 (to transform) + 整 (the whole) + 为 (into) + 零 (the scattered pieces). To disperse one large thing into many small ones: a big force split into small units that move unseen, a large task divided into manageable bits, a lump sum paid in installments. The opposite is 化零为整 (gather the scattered into a whole). The phrase turns directly on the character's core opposition between 零 (fragment) and 整 (whole).

零零星星 líng líng xīng xīng "scattered like stray stars" — sparse and scattered; bits and pieces here and there A reduplication of 零星 (scattered, sporadic), itself 零 (scattered drops) plus 星 (stars, scattered points of light). The doubled form intensifies the sense of things occurring sparsely and at intervals, a few here, a few there: 零零星星的几个人 (just a scattered handful of people), 零零星星地下着雨 (rain falling in scattered drops). The phrase returns 零 almost to its origin, the stray raindrops from which the character grew.

凋零 diāo líng "to wither and fall" — to fade and drop away; (of people) to pass away 凋 (to wither) + 零 (to fall in drops). Strictly a two-character word rather than a four-character chengyu, but a fixed literary expression worth knowing. Of plants, to wither and shed; of a once-flourishing group or generation, to dwindle as its members fade and pass: 老一辈逐渐凋零 (the older generation gradually passing away). It carries the full autumnal weight of 零, the falling and scattering of what was once whole and alive.

感激涕零 gǎn jī tì líng "so grateful the tears fall" — moved to tears by gratitude; deeply thankful 感激 (deep gratitude) + 涕 (tears) + 零 (to fall in drops). Here 零 returns to its literal verb sense, "to fall in drops," applied not to rain but to tears: gratitude so overwhelming that the tears come down. The phrase describes being moved to weeping by another's kindness or favor. It preserves the original weather-word meaning of 零 inside a fixed expression of feeling.

记忆法 jìyìfǎ · Master Retention Image

The rain radical 雨 sits at the top for a reason: 零 began as rain falling in scattered drops, the lingering few after the shower. From those stray drops come all its other senses, the fragment, the leftover, the small piecemeal portion. 零钱 (loose change), 零食 (snacks), 零件 (spare parts), 零落 (withered and scattered): in each, 零 is the bit left over against the whole 整.

Hold on to the surprise at the end: the meaning a learner meets first, the digit zero, came last. Chinese counted for centuries with no zero at all, because unit-words like 千 and 百 already marked each place. The circle 〇 and the use of 零 for "0" arrived late, borrowed onto a rain-word because "the small leftover" was the nearest idea to an empty place. The number that means nothing grew out of the rain.