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Ground zero

//ˌɡɹaʊnd ˈzɪəɹəʊ// name, noun

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    The site of the former World Trade Center towers in New York City destroyed on 11 September 2001.

    "As we approached Ground Zero, I felt like I was entering a nightmare. There was little light. Smoke hung in the air and mixed with suspended particles of debris, creating an eerie gray curtain. We sloshed through puddles left behind by the morning rain and the water used to fight the fires."

Noun
  1. 1
    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. countable, uncountable

    "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."

  2. 2
    the point of detonation (or above or below) of a nuclear weapon wordnet
  3. 3
    The location of any disaster or violent assault. broadly, countable, uncountable

    ""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.""

  4. 4
    the target of a projectile (as a bomb or missile) wordnet
  5. 5
    The point at which something begins. countable, figuratively, uncountable

    "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."

Etymology

Etymology 1

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.

Etymology 2

From the general term ground zero.

See also for "ground zero"

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