nil

«nil» in Mova's school dictionary: nothing or zero — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (nil — uncountable); number word

meaning for a pupil

1) Nil means nothing or zero. tree →

2) (UK, sport) Nil is used for zero in match scores: "two–nil". tree →

sense in the lessons

In UK, Irish, Australian and NZ sport talk: "We won three–nil." In formal language: "The risk is nil." In maths it means 0. Phrases: two–nil, nil–nil, nil by mouth (no food or drink in hospital).

examples

• We won the match three–nil. tree →
• The game ended nil–nil. tree →
• The chance of snow in summer here is nil. tree →
• The patient is nil by mouth before the operation. tree →
• Our savings were nil after buying the bike. tree →
• His interest in maths was nil until he met Mr Lee. tree →

note

Means 0. In the US people usually say "zero" or "nothing" for scores ("three to nothing"). In maths: adding nil changes nothing; multiplying by nil gives nil. Do not confuse with the river Nile.

In the corpora

• ODyn-nol means one–nil, a football score; nol means zero or nil, and nul is also heard.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «nil» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.