I'm not aware of any German term that clearly differentiates zero and NULL.
Since in software development English is a big influence, it's quite common to use English terms directly, without translating them: "NULL" (pronounced like the english word) in a German sentence would clearly refer to NULL as opposed to zero. Fortunately the German word "null" (for zero) is pronounced quite a bit differently.
If any confusion is possible, then you can even use the English word "zero" to refer to 0 or rephrase the sentence to avoid any reference to zero or null: "Es wurden keine Zeilen zurückgegeben."
Answer from Joachim Sauer on Stack ExchangeCambridge Dictionary
dictionary.cambridge.org › dictionary › german-english › null
NULL | translate German to English - Cambridge Dictionary
NULL translate: zero, zero, loser, duck, love, nil, nothing, nought, O, o, zero, zero. Learn more in the Cambridge German-English Dictionary.
Collins Dictionary
collinsdictionary.com › dictionary › english-german › null
German Translation of “NULL” | Collins English-German Dictionary
This means that it was null and of no effect. ... Yet it is not a technical deficit but an emotional emptiness that renders this art so null. ... But with a robust framework, a null result can be very important. ... It's the null of the image. ... In the end, his attempt is declared null and void.
Videos
00:38
How to pronounce Null - YouTube
00:15
German word for zero is null - YouTube
00:33
How to Say Zero in German | German Lessons - YouTube
19:22
When to Use Nullartikel - German without der, die, das? (A1) | ...
How to pronounce null und nichtig in German
Collins Dictionary
collinsdictionary.com › dictionary › german-english › null
English Translation of “NULL” | Collins German-English Dictionary
non-existent If you say that something is nil, you mean that it does not exist at all. Their legal rights are virtually nil. American English: nil /ˈnɪl/ Brazilian Portuguese: zero · Chinese: 不存在 · European Spanish: cero · French: ...
Langenscheidt
en.langenscheidt.com › german-english › null
null - Translation in English - Langenscheidt dictionary German-English
Für Microsoft besteht das Problem darin, dass die Grenzkosten für Software gleich null sind. ... The chances of success are near zero. Die Erfolgschancen hierfür liegen in etwa bei null.
Top answer 1 of 5
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I'm not aware of any German term that clearly differentiates zero and NULL.
Since in software development English is a big influence, it's quite common to use English terms directly, without translating them: "NULL" (pronounced like the english word) in a German sentence would clearly refer to NULL as opposed to zero. Fortunately the German word "null" (for zero) is pronounced quite a bit differently.
If any confusion is possible, then you can even use the English word "zero" to refer to 0 or rephrase the sentence to avoid any reference to zero or null: "Es wurden keine Zeilen zurückgegeben."
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I am a software developer, so I think I can say something about that. At least in the companies I worked for, we used the English word NULL for NULL and the German word Null (Zero) for the number zero. So NULL is just a technical term for us and we don't translate a lot of them.
Linguee
linguee.com › english-german › translation › null.html
null - German translation – Linguee
Der Vitamingehalt des Gerichts lag praktisch bei Null. — The vitamin content of the dish was practically nil. ... Current searches: tag der offenen tür, repent, ungenauigkeit, to be keen, reif, travelling, abstellen, contending, nebelscheinwerfer, usury, freuen über, among other things, nachahmung, company formation, heikel · Most frequent English dictionary requests: 1-200, -1k, -2k, -3k, -4k, -5k, -7k, -10k , -20k, -40k, -100k, -200k, -500k, -1000k Most frequent German dictionary requests: 1-200, -1k, -2k, -3k, -4k, -5k, -7k, -10k , -20k, -40k, -100k, -200k, -500k, -1000k
WordHippo
wordhippo.com › what-is › the-meaning-of › german-word-null.html
What does null mean in German?
The English for null is zero. Find more German words at wordhippo.com!
PONS
en.pons.com › translate › german-english › null
NULL - Translation from German into English | PONS
[noch einmal] bei null anfangen inf · to start [again] from scratch · Show less · German · Alle Unternehmen haben das Ziel der Gewinnmaximierung, aber unter der Annahme vollständiger Konkurrenz ist der Gewinn im Gleichgewicht Null.de.wikipedia.org · Der Nullwinkelauftrieb ist die Kennzahl des dynamischen Auftriebs eines Flügelprofils bei einem Anströmwinkel von null Grad zur Profilsehne.de.wikipedia.org ·
Reddit
reddit.com › r/german › zero oder null?
r/German on Reddit: Zero oder null?
December 15, 2021 -
I work in IT, and I am stumped in how to clearly separate between ''null'/null' and '0'/'null when speaking with germans. When speaking "zero", to remove any doubt, I am usually given a weird look, specially because I am a beginner with German.. Any advice on context, or even Intonation, to make this smoother?
An example: https://german.stackexchange.com/questions/3618/null-zero-vs-null
Top answer 1 of 11
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In IT, it depends on the topic/language. In C, NULL is even defined as 0 - so there's no difference (apart from possible compiler warnings). In C++ for example the builtin keyword "nullptr" exists, therefore you can simply say "Nullpointer". You can use this term in other languages as well if the concept of a pointer exists. In Python, the name is "None", so we use "None" (pronounced the Denglish way "Nan" and yes, to be confused with "not a number"). In SQL, it's usually clear since you need to write "is null" instead of "= 0", so we say "ist Null" und "gleich Null". Whenever there is ambiguity, I try to pronounce "null" the English way, "Nall" would be the closest German. This differs significantly from the German "Null". I was always asking myself: why are there so many zeros in English? Zero, null, nil, oh, love (tennis). Oh, and I forgot about "nought". Anything else?! In IEEE754 floating point arithmetic, we even have +0 and -0, quite funny for non-IT people as well.
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Looks like the stack exchange consensus in the real world is to pronounce the database NULL with an English accent and the number 0 as Null with a German accent. I was curious about this the other day myself since I do a lot of database work so thanks for sharing
PROMT.One
online-translator.com › translation › german-english › null
"null" in English | German to English Translation - PROMT.One
Translate "null" from German to English, zero, null, nought, führende Null, null und nichtig, . See word usage in contexts, conjugation and declension.
Reddit
reddit.com › r/askagerman › correct me if i’m wrong, but “zero” in german is “null”. if so, how do you communicate the mathematical concept of null, meaning having no value at all?
r/AskAGerman on Reddit: Correct me if I’m wrong, but “zero” in German is “null”. If so, how do you communicate the mathematical concept of null, meaning having no value at all?
February 11, 2021 -
It’s an important concept in Computer Science. If you still don’t get the difference, a zero has a value (which is zero) but null has no value at all. Like the difference between seeing black and being blind.
Top answer 1 of 7
32
For mathematics, do you mean the empty set? That's called "leere Menge". For computer science, it depends. Programming languages tend to be "in English" anyway, so if they have a null keyword, it's pronounced like the English word "null" most of the time, so more like "nall" would be in German. Or it's called Nullzeiger (null pointer). Some languages call it nil or None or Nothing or whatever else, which avoids the issue. Note that the null pointer tends to have the value zero anyway, so once you get to a level low enough that thinking about memory addresses makes sense, the difference disappears. I mean, I have taught programming in C to first semesters, and the difference between 0 and NULLcaused a few issues. But definitely not as many issues as the difference between 0 and '0', and that the latter is actually the number 48. But that's programming. When talking about computer science as a science (and not programming), I'm not aware of "null" being a common concept we dealt with.
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As far as I know the English word “null” is used in computer science. The German word “null (for zero) is pronounced differently.
Leo
dict.leo.org › german-english › null
null - Translation in LEO’s English ⇔ German Dictionary
Learn the translation for ‘null’ in LEO’s English ⇔ German dictionary. With noun/verb tables for the different cases and tenses ✓ audio pronunciation and relevant forum discussions ✓ free vocabulary trainer ✓
Wiktionary
en.wiktionary.org › wiki › null
null - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
From German Null. ... From Latin nullus. ... From the noun Null (“the number zero”), from Italian nulla, from Latin nulla, feminine singular of nullus (“no, none”). ... (cardinal number) zero; nil; nought; (tennis) love (integer number between −1 and 1, denoting no quantity at all)
Larousse
larousse.com › en › dictionaries › german-english › null › 30867
Translation : null - german-english dictionary Larousse
Connexion/Inscription Newsletter · Suivez nous: · EN ES DE IT · Home > Bilingual dictionaries > German-English > null · GERMAN · ENGLISH · · ENGLISH · GERMAN · Numeral · zero · null Komma fünf · zero oder nought ...
Langenscheidt
en.langenscheidt.com › english-german › null
null - Translation in German - Langenscheidt dictionary English-German
null electrical engineering | Elektrotechnik und ElektrizitätELEK dead spot · ein in Geheimschrift angeführtes Zeichen (Buchstabe, Zahlet cetera, and so on | etc., und so weiter etc), das nicht zum Text gehörtand | und u.
PONS
en.pons.com › translate › english-german › null
NULL - Translation from English into German | PONS
Wenn der p-Wert sehr klein ist, bedeutet dies, dass es sehr unwahrscheinlich (kleine Wahrscheinlichkeit) ist, dass das beobachtete räumliche Muster das Ergebnis zufälliger Prozesse ist, deshalb können Sie die Nullhypothese ablehnen. ... Notably, when searching for periodicities in impact crater data, you need to take properly into account whether the particular periodicity ( say, 13 million years vs.
Langenscheidt
en.langenscheidt.com › german-english › null-null
Null-Null - Translation in English - Langenscheidt dictionary German-English
German-English dictionary · Null-Null · [ˈnʊlˈnʊl]Maskulinum und Neutrum | masculine and neuter m/n <Null-Null; keinPlural | plural pl> umgangssprachlich | familiar, informalumg · (For more details, click/tap on the translation) john, ...
Tradukka
tradukka.com › dictionary › english dictionary › english-german dictionary › what is null in german? null
What is null in German? NULL | Tradukka
September 30, 2025 - Null; nichts. An instrument reading of zero.
Translate.com
translate.com › dictionaries › german-english › null
Null in English | German to English Dictionary | Translate.com
Translate "null" from German to English - "zero". Discover meaning, audio pronunciations, synonyms, and sentence examples in both languages with Translate.com.
Collins Dictionary
collinsdictionary.com › dictionary › german-english › null-null
English Translation of “NULL-NULL” | Collins German-English Dictionary
DeclensionNull-Null is a neuter and masculine noun. Remember that, in German, both the spelling of the word and the article preceding the word can change depending on whether it is in the nominative, accusative, genitive, or dative case.