Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.
zero (n.)
The plural is either zeros or zeroes, and the word is pronounced either ZEE-ro or ZI-ro. Most single-digit numbers have one and only one verbal representation: one, two, three, four, etc. (Numbers of more than one digit can be turned into more than one verbalization: twenty-five, two five; one hundred sixty-seven, one sixty-seven, one six seven; two thousand three hundred [and] five, twenty-three hundred [and] five, etc.) Zero is different: when we recite our social security, credit card, ZIP code, or telephone numbers, we say zero, oh (the name of the letter o, pronounced O), naught or nought (which means both “zero” and “nothing”; both variants are pronounced to rhyme with fought), aught or ought (an erroneous but now Standard separation of the words a naught or nought into an aught or ought). And there are also some words of much lower frequency, such as cipher (meaning both “zero”: and “nothing”) and, especially in reporting the scores of games, the word nothing or the slang word zip: The Red Sox lost, three [to] nothing, or three [to] zip. An even lower frequency way of saying zero (or nothing) is the noun null, most often heard in the cliché null and void. And the British make much use of nil, which they use in giving game scores orally and in other mathematical verbalizing. All these (except zip) are fully Standard.
