零 líng zero; nought

Made up of [雨 yǔ rain radical 173, 令 lìng to order; to command; an order ]
Made with 13 strokes.
The combination of 'rain' and phonetic 'ling' gave original meaning of a fine mist, it also meant 'last part'. Perhaps helpful to memorize as an enveloping mist where nothing (zero) can be seen or else as the round shape of a raindrop. The use of zero as a number came quite late to China (c. 1250CE).
Ancient small seal form Small seal

Related characters


Also uses 雨 yǔ component: 雷 léi (thunder) 露 lù (dew) ; 雪 xuě (snow)
Also uses 令 lìng component: 冷 lěng (cold) 怜 lián (to pity) ; 邻 lín (neighbor) ; 领 lǐng (neck) ; 龄 líng (age)

Sounds same

陵 líng (mound) ; 龄 líng (age)

Different tone

领 lǐng (neck) ; 另 lìng (other) ; 令 lìng (to order)

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Pronunciation

Sound file kindly provided by shtooka.net ➚ under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License

stroke order for 零
Stroke order for character 零, kindly provided under Wikimedia creative commons license ➚