ground zero
/ˌɡɹaʊnd ˈzɪɚ(ˌ)oʊ/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.52 in modern English
21
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Originally, the point on the land or water surface below which a nuclear bomb detonates in the air; now also the point on such a surface at or above the detonation.
Countable; Uncountable
name
The site of the former World Trade Center towers in New York City destroyed on 11 September 2001.
Example Sentences
- "Some of the construction details (reinforcing rod splices, for example) [in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan] were often poor, and much of the concrete was definitely weak; thus some reinforced concrete buildings collapsed and suffered structural damage when within 2,000 feet of ground zero, and some internal wall paneling was demolished even up to 3,800 feet."
- "It's Christmas at ground zero / The button has been pressed / The radio / Just let us know / That this is not a test"
- ""This is ground zero," she said. "If regulators don't adopt a zero tolerance for violations of standards then what we will have are places that are going to have unacceptable environmental damage.""
- "Florida has been called a “ground zero” for climate change in America, as the state is expected to face the highest temperature rise in the southeast; […]"
- "For Larson and other activists, Kamilo Beach has become ground zero of the crisis."
- "The two West Virginia local authorities accuse the distributors of turning Cabell county, with a population of just 90,000, into the “ground zero of the opioid epidemic sweeping the nation”, by flooding the area with nearly 100m opioid pills over a decade."
Etymology
From ground + zero, first attested in a June 1946 a report by the United States Strategic Bombing Survey on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, on August 6 and 9, 1945, during World War II. “Zero” was used as the code name for the location of the Trinity atomic bomb test – the first detonation of a nuclear weapon – in New Mexico, USA, on July 16, 1945.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌɡɹaʊnd ˈzɪɚ(ˌ)oʊ/
- British English: /ˌɡɹaʊnd ˈzɪəɹəʊ/