零

• 読み: れい
• ローマ字: rei
• 漢字の分解: 零 (rei) — zero; 雨 (ame, rain) radical + 令 (rei, command)
• 発音: /ɾeː/

意味

Zero; nought. The number zero in formal Japanese.

Read as れい in formal or mathematical contexts. In everyday speech, ゼロ (from English 'zero') is far more common. れい is used in weather forecasts (零度, reido, zero degrees), phone numbers, and formal counting. The native word also appears in 零点 (reiten, zero points) and 零時 (reiji, midnight/zero o'clock).

例文

1. 今日の気温は零度です。
2. 電話番号は零三から始まります。
3. テストで零点を取ってしまいました。

使い方ガイド

場面: math, weather, formal counting

トーン: neutral

起源と歴史

The kanji 零 originally meant 'falling rain' or 'dripping.' It took on the meaning of zero through its association with small, falling drops — something vanishing or approaching nothing.

文化的背景

時代: Ancient

世代: All ages

社会的背景: Universal