null

• POS: Adjective

CIDE DICTIONARY

null, a. [L. nullus not any, none; ne not + ullus any, a dim. of unus one; cf. F. nul. See No, and One, and cf. None.].

•  Of no legal or binding force or validity; of no efficacy; invalid; void; nugatory; useless.  [1913 Webster]

  "Faultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly null,
  Dead perfection; no more."  [1913 Webster]
•  Having a value of zero; as, of null utility.  [PJC]
•  Empty; having no members; as, the null set.  [PJC]
•  Unassigned or meaningless; -- a special value given to variables, especially pointers or logical variables, indicating that it is meaningless and cannot be used in computation; as, an uninitialized pointer in "C" is given a null value. The actual value that is stored in memory to indicate the null condition may vary with the computer language used.  [PJC]

null, n. 

•  Something that has no force or meaning.  [1913 Webster]
•  That which has no value; a cipher; zero.  Bacon.  [1913 Webster]

Null method (Physics.), a zero method. See under Zero.

null, v. t. [From null, a., or perh. abbrev. from annul.].

 To annul.  Milton.  [1913 Webster]

null, n. [Etymol. uncertain.].

 One of the beads in nulled work.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

null, adj. & n.
--adj.
1 (esp. null and void) invalid; not binding.
2 non-existent; amounting to nothing.
3 having or associated with the value zero.
4 Computing a empty; having no elements (null list). b all the elements of which are zeros (null matrix).
5 without character or expression.
--n. a dummy letter in a cipher.

Idiom

null character Computing a character denoting nothing, usu. represented by a zero. null hypothesis a hypothesis suggesting that the difference between statistical samples does not imply a difference between populations. null instrument an instrument used by adjustment to give a reading of zero. null link Computing a reference incorporated into the last item in a list to indicate there are no further items in the list.

Etymology

F nul nulle or L nullus none f. ne not + ullus any

THESAURUS

null

aimless, bad, bare, barren, bland, blank, bleached, characterless, clear, designless, devoid, empty, existless, featureless, garbled, hollow, importless, inane, ineffective, ineffectual, inefficacious, insignificant, insipid, invalid, lacking, meaningless, minus, missing, negative, nonconnotative, nondenotative, nonexistent, null and void, phatic, purportless, purposeless, scrambled, senseless, unexisting, unmeaning, unrelieved, unsignificant, useless, vacant, vacuous, void, white, with nothing inside, without being, without content, worthless

ROGET THESAURUS

null

Unsubstantiality

N unsubstantiality, insubstantiality, nothingness, nihility, no degree, no part, no quantity, no thing, nothing, naught, nil, nullity, zero, cipher, no one, nobody, never a one, ne'er a one, no such thing, none in the world, nothing whatever, nothing at all, nothing on earth, not a particle, all talk, moonshine, stuff and nonsense, matter of no importance, matter of no consequence, thing of naught, man of straw, John Doe and Richard Roe, faggot voter, nominis umbra, nonentity, flash in the pan, vox et praeterea nihil, shadow, phantom, dream, ignis fatuus, such stuff as dreams are made of, air, thin air, vapor, bubble, baseless fabric of a vision, mockery, hollowness, blank, void, inanity, fool's paradise, unsubstantial, baseless, groundless, ungrounded, without foundation, having no foundation, visionary, immaterial, spectral, dreamy, shadowy, ethereal, airy, cloud built, cloud formed, gossamery, illusory, insubstantial, unreal, vacant, vacuous, empty, eviscerated, blank, hollow, nominal, null, inane, there's nothing in it, an ocean of dreams without a sound.

Zero

N zero, nothing, null, nul, naught, nought, void, cipher, goose egg, none, nobody, no one, nichts, nixie, nix, zilch, zip, zippo, not a soul, ame qui vive, absence, unsubstantiality, not one, not a one, not any, nary a one, not a, never a, not a whit of, not an iota of, not a drop of, not a speck of, not a jot, not a trace of, not a hint of, not a smidgen of, not a suspicion of, not a shadow of, neither hide nor hair of.