null

[nuhl] /nʌl/

adjective

without value, effect, consequence, or significance.

being or amounting to nothing; nil; lacking; nonexistent.

Mathematics.

empty.
of measure zero.

being or amounting to zero.

noun

Electronics. a point of minimum signal reception, as on a radio direction finder or other electronic meter.

verb (used with object)

to cancel; make null.

Idioms

null and void, without legal force or effect; not valid:

This contract is null and void.

Origin

1555-65; < Latin nūllus, equivalent to n(e) not + ūllus any

Examples from the web for null

To start afresh, the derivatives of the real estate should be declared null and void.
Since then it has sought unilaterally to declare the arbitral award null and void.
And if it does not, the agreement is rendered null and void.
Sadly, what was once a void is now almost null and void.
The shareholders were upset, and the vote was declared null and void.
The food is designed to render criticism null and void.
Bankruptcy would have made the contracts null and void, at best in line with all the unsecured creditors.
The null hypothesis is that the two variances are the same.
So we'd have to test against a null hypothesis in the first place.
null said he had a poor education and never made it through high school.

British Dictionary definitions for null

null

/nʌl/

adjective

without legal force; invalid; (esp in the phrase null and void)

without value or consequence; useless

lacking distinction; characterless: a null expression

nonexistent; amounting to nothing

(maths)

quantitatively zero
relating to zero
(of a set) having no members
(of a sequence) having zero as a limit

(physics) involving measurement in which an instrument has a zero reading, as with a Wheatstone bridge

Word Origin

C16: from Latin nullus none, from ne not + ullus any

Word Origin and History for null

adj.

"void of legal force," 1560s, from Middle French nul, from Latin nullus "not any, none," from ne- "not, no" (see un-) + illus "any," diminutive of unus "one" (see one).

null in Science

null

(nŭl)
Of or relating to a set having no members or to zero magnitude.

null in Technology

programming
A special value used in several languages to represent the thing referred to by an uninitialised pointer. database
A special value that may be stored in some database columns to represent an unknown, missing, not applicable, or undefined value. Nulls are treated completely differently from ordinary values when evaluating SQL expressions and there are several SQL constructs for dealing with nulls.
(2003-06-17)