# ground zero
## English
### 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.

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˌɡɹaʊnd ˈzɪəɹəʊ/
* (General American) IPA: /ˌɡɹaʊnd ˈzɪɚ(ˌ)oʊ/, /-ˈzi(ˌ)ɹoʊ/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɪəɹəʊ
* Hyphenation: ground ze‧ro

### Noun

ground zero (countable and uncountable, plural ground zeroes)
* 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.
** 1946 June 19, U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, “The Effects of the Atomic Bombings”, in The Effects of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki‎, [s.l.]: Chairman’s Office, →OCLC, archived from the original on 10 August 2021, page 5: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.
** 1986, "Weird Al" Yankovic (lyrics and music), “Christmas at Ground Zero”, in Polka Party!‎:It's Christmas at ground zero / The button has been pressed / The radio / Just let us know / That this is not a test
* (by extension) The location of any disaster or violent assault.
** 2011 April 21, Suzanne Goldenberg, quoting Jan Jarrett, “Pennsylvania: the ‘ground zero’ of the US shale gas drilling boom”, in The Guardian‎:"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."
** 2019 October 17, Matt Stieb, “Florida GOP Regrets ‘Lost’ Decade on Climate Change”, in New York Magazine‎: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; […]
** 2020 January 10, Liz Barney, Michelle Broder Van Dyke, “Welcome to Hawaii's ‘plastic beach’, one of the world's dirtiest places”, in The Guardian‎:For Larson and other activists, Kamilo Beach has become ground zero of the crisis.
** 2021 May 3, Chris McGreal, “‘Ground zero of the opioid epidemic’: West Virginia puts drug giants on trial”, in The Guardian‎: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.
* (figuratively) The point at which something begins.
** 1997 May 4, Adam Nossiter, “Ground Zero”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:James Meredith's forced admission was a milestone in upending the old order in America's most segregated state, a kind of race relations ground zero.
** 2009 March 21, Nicholas Kristof, “Education’s Ground Zero”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:Less than two years into the job, she has transformed Washington into ground zero of America’s education reform movement.

#### Alternative forms

* ground-zero

#### Hypernyms

* epicenter, epicentre
* hypocenter, hypocentre

#### Derived terms

* Ground Zero

#### Translations
### References

* ↑ U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey (1946 June 19) “The Effects of the Atomic Bombings”, in The Effects of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki‎, [s.l.]: Chairman’s Office, →OCLC, archived from the original on 10 August 2021, page 5: “For convenience, the term ‘ground zero’ will be used to designate the point on the ground beneath the point of denotation, or ‘air zero’.”
* ↑ William L[eonard] Laurence (1946) Dawn over Zero: The Story of the Atomic Bomb, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →OCLC, page 4.

### Further reading

* ground zero on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* “ground zero, n.” under “ground, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2021.
* “ground zero, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.