nula

Nula is the word used in several South Slavic languages—Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian, and Slovenian—to denote the numeric value zero and the broader concept of nothingness or absence.

Mathematically, zero serves as the additive identity: for any number a, a + 0 = a. It is the origin point on the number line and a placeholder in decimal notation.

Zero has several defining properties: it is even; zero divided by any nonzero number is zero, while division by zero is undefined; multiplying any number by zero yields zero; and zero separates negative and positive numbers.

In computing and mathematics, the concept of zero is central to positional numeral systems and algorithms.

Historically, the concept of zero originated in ancient India and was transmitted to the Islamic world and then to Europe, where it became a fundamental element of arithmetic and algebra. The word nula is the standard term for zero in Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian, and Slovenian.