零

líng
number HSK 1 #3,623

Meanings

  1. 1 zero

Examples

HSK 1
Yìbǎi líng yī.
One hundred and one.
HSK 2
Tā zhècì kǎoshì dé le líng fēn.
He got a zero on this exam.
HSK 5
Jīntiān língxià shí dù.
It's minus ten degrees today.

Tips

usage
When saying phone numbers or room numbers, Chinese speakers often use 零 for 0. For the digit 0 in math or tech contexts, 〇 (a circle) is also used.
grammar
In numbers, 零 is used as a placeholder when there are skipped place values: 101 = 一百零一, 1001 = 一千零一. Only one 零 is needed regardless of how many zeros.

Components

radical
雨 yǔ
rain
Top 雨 is the indexing rain radical - drops falling from a cloud bar, with four inner dots as the rain itself. Anchors 零 in the weather family. The original meaning was 'scattered drizzle', which generalised to 'odd bits' (零钱 small change, 零碎 fragments) and finally to the abstract 'zero'. Same radical: 雷, 雪, 露, 霜.
phonetic
令 lìng
order; command (here phonetic)
Bottom 令 supplies the sound - lìng drifting to líng (only tone shifts). Same phonetic family: 龄 age, 铃 bell, 玲 tinkle, 邻 neighbour. Pure phonetic; the 'command' meaning of 令 contributes nothing. The whole 令-cluster gives the líng / lìng / lín rhyme group.

Stroke Order

零 líng