The kanji 零 primarily conveys the meanings of "zero," "nothing," "to drop," or "to spill." It signifies absence, emptiness, or the start point of counting. It also relates to a state of being small or insignificant.

・On-yomi (音読み): レイ (rei) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): ゼロ (zero), こぼ（す） (kobosu, to spill)

⚫︎零度 Translation: Zero degrees ⚫︎零時 Translation: Zero o'clock (midnight) ⚫︎零れる Translation: To spill; to overflow

The kanji 零 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字, keisei moji). The left side is 雨 (ame, rain) which acts as the semantic component, indicating that the character is related to water or something liquid. The right side is 令 (rei, order, command) which acts as the phonetic component, indicating the pronunciation. The original meaning was "to fall" or "to drip," like rain, which evolved to include meanings of "zero" and "nothing."