null

 
Pronunciation: /nʌl/

adjective

  • 1 [predic.] having no legal or binding force; invalid: the establishment of a new interim government was declared null and void
  • 2having or associated with the value zero.
  • Mathematics (of a set or matrix) having no elements, or only zeros as elements.
  • 3lacking distinctive qualities; having no positive substance or content: his curiously null life

noun

  • 1 literary a zero.
  • 2a dummy letter in a cipher.
  • 3 Electronics a condition of no signal.
  • a direction in which no electromagnetic radiation is detected or emitted.

verb

[with object] Electronics
  • combine (a signal) with another in order to create a null; cancel out: the tumour can be more readily identified by nulling the high signal from bone marrow

Origin:

late Middle English: from French nul, nulle, from Latin nullus 'none', from ne 'not' + ullus 'any'