This is the final post in this month’s Rogue Words series. I’ve had a lot of fun doing these, and I’m sorry to see them go. In fact, I’m thinking about making them a regular feature of my blog. If you have an opinion on whether you’d like me to round up more rogue words in the future, please feel free to leave a comment!
And now, on to today’s word…the deceptively simple-looking zero.
Zero can be used as an adjective, a verb, or a noun.
Zero As an Adjective
When zero is used as an adjective (which is rare), the noun it describes must be plural (or be a non-countable noun, like awareness).
Zachary charged through the door of Professor Z’s office, dragging a girl with him. “Something’s really wrong with Zoe, Professor! I had zero ideas about what to do, so I brought her to you. Can you help?”
Zoe stood where Zachary had left her, in front of Professor Z’s desk. Her hair was scraggly and her face had a grey tinge. She stared at the Professor blankly. It was clear that she had zero awareness of what was going on.
Zero As a Verb
When zero is used as a verb, you sometimes (but not always) need to add an e. Forms of the verb zero include zero, zeroes, zeroed, and zeroing.
“Hmmm,” said Professor Z in her reassuring way. She walked around Zoe, studying her from all angles. Zoe didn’t react at all, even when the Professor poked her in the arm.
“I said to myself, Professor Z is someone who always zeroes in on the problem,” said Zachary. He bounced from foot to foot. “I’ve been thinking…do you think Zoe’s turning into a zombie? That would be so zany, but I’m not sure what else to think!”
“Do you see this?” the Professor asked Zachary. She pointed at Zoe’s watch. Zachary bent to look.
Zero As a Noun
When zero is used a third-person verb, you write it as zeroes. But when zero is used as a plural noun, you don’t use an e: it’s spelled zeros.
The watch was set on a timer, and it was counting down to zero. Only five seconds to go…
“Oh no! In five…no, four seconds, she’s going to turn into a zombie! I knew it!”
“I don’t think so,” said Professor Z.
The time counted down until there were only zeros: 00:00:00. The watch started beeping.
Zoe stirred and blinked. “It’s done? I’m all finished?”
“Yes, dear,” said the Professor gently. You can go to bed now.” Zoe shuffled out of the room.
Zachary stared after her. “What was that about?”
“Just as I suspected,” said the Professor. “It’s now May first. The A to Z Blogging Challenge is over, and Zoe can finally get some sleep.”
***
Congratulations to everyone who made it through the A to Z Challenge! Thanks so much for reading, liking, and commenting on my posts. 🙂
For those who are new to my blog, I hope you will continue to visit after A to Z. I will be posting my A to Z Reflections post next Monday, and then will go back to my usual weekly posting schedule. I post a mix of creative writing and grammar tips, interviews with others about communication (Conversation Corner), and in-depth reviews of writing resources (DBW Reviews).
See you on the other side! Off now to get some sleep…
© Sue Archer and Doorway Between Worlds, 2015
Thanks for all the great A to Z wordplay this month, Sue! I’m not surprised you’re rushing off to sleep! I’d definitely have zero energy after all this!
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Zero energy is right! Glad to be done writing, so I have more time to read and catch up on what everyone else has been doing. 🙂
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Thank you for an excellent series. I really enjoyed it. You’ve definitely earned yourself a nice sleep!
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Thanks, Carrie!
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Thanks Sue for this marathon of words. I enjoyed so much those 26 days of rogue words! Yes, you should keep writing on those words. I will miss those daily posts…looking forward the weekly visit to your blog.
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I’m glad you liked them, Nicole. I’ve got lots of ideas I’ve been storing up for future posts, so it will be good to get to them!
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Yay! Finally at Z. This was a wonderful experience and i learnt a lot from this post. Who knew grammar could be this fun?! 😄 thank you very much Sue.
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Thank you for reading, Ameena! I appreciate all your comments. 🙂
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Nice to meet you here (via Carrie) and zero in on your great blog. 🙂
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Nice to meet you, too, roughwighting. (I love that name!) I’m happy you enjoyed my post. 🙂 That’s great that you found me through Carrie, she has such a great community on her blog. Looking forward to visiting yours as soon as I get a chance!
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Not sure I knew the difference in the use of zeros and zeroes, so thanks for that. I think a rogue word post now and then would be a jolly good thing – I laughed at the punchline of that one. Zombies made it into my post today too!
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Oooh…zombies in Glasgow, that sounds dangerous! Which means of course I will need to check them out!
And I’m glad you liked the punchline. 🙂 I think we’re all feeling a bit punchy at the moment after all that blogging!
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Congratulations! This was a very impressive feat!
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Thanks, Albert! It feels good to have made it.
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I have loved dropping in and reading about your words, your explanations have been fantastic.
And I have to say, I LOVE today’s example!
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Hi, Princess! I’m so happy you liked the series. I’ve enjoyed dropping in on yours as well – looking forward to having more time to read and catch up in May!
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Hi there – A good way to complete the challenge. 🙂
BTW, I’m dropping in from a shout out to your blog from Rosie Amber’s blog https://rosieamber.wordpress.com/.
@dino0726 from
FictionZeal – Impartial, Straighforward Fiction Book Reviews
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Glad you could stop by from Rosie’s blog! Will be sure to swing by over the next little while. 🙂
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Haha! The ending was perfect. I could use a nap now that the challenge is done.
Congratulations on making it to the end.
~Patricia Lynne aka Patricia Josephine~
Member of C. Lee’s Muffin Commando Squad
Story Dam
Patricia Lynne, Indie Author
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Glad you enjoyed the ending, Patricia! Congratulations to you as well. We can all celebrate with a nice long nap. 🙂
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I’m really glad to have come across your wonderful blog during A-to-Z challenge. As a student of English as a foreign language, I find your theme very interesting.
I’ve bookmarked your blog, so that I can come back and learn more.
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Thank you, Romi. I really appreciate the compliment, and I’m happy you found useful information on my blog.
I have learned so much from your blog as well. I’ve always been intrigued by kanji, and your explanations were clear and entertaining. I will be sure to be back for more. 🙂
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Of course I will definitely be back now that we are done with the alphabet! I learned a lot from this theme from you, and I loved the examples you presented along the way. 😀
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Thanks! Yes, right now I would be happy to never see the alphabet again. 😉 Seriously, it will be great to have more time to catch up on your fantastic posts!
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I didn’t know Zero existed as a verb and as a noun or that the spelling is different.
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I first started wondering about this when I saw zeros and zeroes. Then when you look into it, you realize zero has a lot going on! 🙂
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I didn’t realize that zero can form its plural more than one way. 🙂
I have really enjoyed reading here during the A-Z Challenge.
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Thanks! I really appreciate all your comments. 🙂
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Hee, hee. Love it! Perfect ending. Congrats on surviving A to Z! I also didn’t know that the plural of zero was different for the noun and verb. Thanks! 🙂
And if you haven’t already, check this out:
https://lillian888.wordpress.com/2015/04/30/night-of-the-apostrophe-ninja/
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Congrats on surviving it as well, Lori! I guess you’re an old hand at it now. 😉 And thanks for the heads up on Lillian’s reblog – I really appreciate your comment!
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I meant it! 🙂
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This was such an entertaining series! 🙂
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Thanks, IC! I’m so glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
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Oh, I didn’t even know the difference between the verb and the noun.
Thanks so much for another useful, informative post.
And congrats on finishing the challenge. It was a nice ride. I’ll sure be back for more reads 🙂
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Congrats to you as well! Looking forward to seeing what you have in store for future posts. 🙂
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Yes please write some of these types from time to time on your blog. They are very instructive but in a fun way. I have enjoyed your blog during the A to Z and look forward to continuing.
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Glad to have you here, Maryann! Thanks for reading. 🙂
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I loved every post I read, and I’m delighted to say that I didn’t get to them all, so I have future fun in store. The way you took your rogue words and intertwined them in the story was a wonderful writing limitation that was like a springboard into creative flow. Great work!
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Thanks very much! Yes, I found the words were very much like writing prompts, where they force you to focus your imagination. 🙂
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Please continue the feature! But, I have a question, if, as a noun, plural zero is written zeros, why is plural hero written heroes? 😛
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LOL, great question, Alex! I can only pass on this ancient wisdom: English is strange. 😉
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Your rouge words were fun..I zeroed a few but thoroughly enjoyed 🙂
Congrats on completing the challenge!!
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Thanks, Parul!
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Yes to more Rogue Word features!! 🙂
And you know, I don’t think I knew that it’s “zeroes” as a verb and “zeros” as a pluralized noun. I guess I assumed they were interchangeable? Fascinating! Just when I think I’ve got one of these int the bag, you surprise me with a fun fact I didn’t know!
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I keep digging through the layers and finding more things. 🙂 Thanks for the vote on more rogue words!
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Congrats on making all the way to Z. Before reading this, I would have just thought about it as noun.
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Congrats to you as well, Rhonda! I thought of zero that way, too, but after digging into the different spellings I started realizing zero does a lot of things. 🙂 Who knew?
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This was one informative post, Sue. Little did I realize that this little word had so many intricate rules. I think some of them have been picked up through reading, because as I read through your story I asked myself, “Now would I have glossed over that word had it been spelled any other way?” The answer is I don’t know. Which makes me think that at least by knowing this word is a tricky one, I will surely return to your post to double check I’ve used it correctly.
I so hope you have a little time to recover. You’ve done a brilliant job with the challenge. I’m better for it. Thanks, Sue! 🙂
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As always, I really appreciate your comments, Shelley! It’s a lovely weather weekend right now, so I am indeed taking some down time. I’ll catch you later. 🙂
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Zero is very versatile! I loved your examples.
Congratulations on making it to the end! And thank you for visiting my blog throughout the Challenge. 🙂
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Thank you! I loved your theme of disasters (which sounds odd, but is true nonetheless)!
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Wow, enjoyable writing and I learned something about nothing 🙂
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Thanks, Dan! I’m glad you liked it. 🙂
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It’s interesting how different the meanings of zero as an adjective and as a verb on – to zero on something seems to have nothing to with the number zero. unless I’m missing something? I think your rogue words series is great, definitely keep doing it, if you weren’t already planning to. I’ve picked lots of interesting bits and pieces and I’ll defintely be referring back to a couple of your posts in the future when I get stuck.
Have you thought of making a tab for the rogue word category? For anyone (and me!) who wants to come back and refer to a particular post?
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Hi Celine, as we chatted about, the Rogue Words tab is on the left side in my new blog layout. Sometimes I find it hard to navigate all of these different layouts!
Apparently to “zero in” on something comes from adjusting an instrument to a setting of zero, which was originally used in rifle-shooting. So it is related, but has evolved over time. 🙂
Glad to hear my posts are useful references for you!
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Yes, I’ve seen it now. That was a face-palm moment if ever there was one. I don’t know how I missed it. Anyhoo… 😉
Oh that’s fascinating about the origin of the zero word. I love learning where words come from, they often have such interesting stories behind their meaning!
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We’ve all had those days! I love researching words. So much to discover.
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