How to Use absolute zero in a Sentence

absolute zero

noun
Definition of absolute zeronext
  • Then the team cooled the tardigrades down even further, to just above absolute zero.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 28 Dec. 2021
  • To do so, physicists use lasers to cool atoms to just a trillionth of a degree above absolute zero.
    — Karmela Padavic-Callaghan, Scientific American, 23 Nov. 2020
  • The atoms have to be cold—just above absolute zero—because heat rises.
    — Stephanie Pappas, Scientific American, 27 Sep. 2023
  • Researchers just found a new way to get an object to absolute zero.
    — Jackie Appel, Popular Mechanics, 4 May 2023
  • Researchers have used lasers to get things down to millionths of a degree above absolute zero.
    — John Wenz, Popular Mechanics, 31 Mar. 2016
  • People might have learned at some point in school that at absolute zero, all motion stops.
    — Steven Strogatz, Quanta Magazine, 26 July 2023
  • In the authors' setup, the controller is a cloud of rubidium atoms cooled to near absolute zero and held in a trap.
    — Chris Lee, Ars Technica, 7 Feb. 2022
  • The photons have cooled to just a few degrees above absolute zero, and their wavelengths have stretched into the microwave part of the spectrum.
    — Kenneth Chang, New York Times, 3 June 2024
  • Other quantum labs freeze their stay-at-home photons to near-absolute zero as a way of tapping the brakes.
    — Dan Hurley, Discover Magazine, 3 Oct. 2020
  • As the universe expanded, photons in the CMB stretched to longer wavelengths and cooled to a few degrees above absolute zero in the modern day.
    — Adam Mann, Science | AAAS, 10 Oct. 2017
  • On the flip side, absolute zero — cold so cold there’s nowhere to go but up — is almost within scientists’ grasp.
    — Stephen Ornes, Discover Magazine, 30 June 2019
  • Despite the fiery appearance of the Flame Nebula, the clouds are very cold and only reach a few tens of degrees above absolute zero.
    — Ashley Strickland, CNN, 7 Jan. 2022
  • Each of these tiny blobs consists of 8,000 rubidium atoms that Steinhauer has cooled to near absolute zero and then swished around with a laser.
    — Wired, 8 Nov. 2019
  • Instead it is warmed to nearly three kelvins (just above absolute zero) by weak microwaves.
    — Martin Rees, Scientific American, 18 Aug. 2020
  • As space expands, that energy will cool to absolute zero, bringing on the heat death of our universe.
    — Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, 3 Mar. 2022
  • The telescope faces engineering challenges, such as the need to keep it just a few degrees above absolute zero.
    — Leah Brennan, baltimoresun.com, 24 July 2019
  • The researchers connected the chips with an optical fiber and cooled the whole setup close to absolute zero to damp out vibrations.
    — Gabriel Popkin, Science | AAAS, 25 Apr. 2018
  • In the distant future, the universe will approach absolute zero at the end of everything (see below).
    — Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, 3 Mar. 2022
  • The temperature there is a frigid -400 degrees Fahrenheit—colder than the surface of Pluto, and just a tad warmer than absolute zero.
    — Katrina Miller, WIRED, 13 Dec. 2022
  • That’s long enough for them to be cooled to record-low temperatures—perhaps as little as 20 trillionths of a degree above absolute zero.
    — Elizabeth Gibney, Scientific American, 9 May 2018
  • Researchers have tried for decades to reach absolute zero, which is thought to be impossible to ever attain.
    — Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 17 Jan. 2017
  • All the optics had to be made on the ground at room temperature but were deployed in space and operated at 30 to 55 degrees above absolute zero.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 6 July 2022
  • Just a few feet away, on the other hand, the windings of the superconducting electromagnets need to be cooled to a few degrees above absolute zero.
    — New York Times, 10 Aug. 2021
  • The small piece of quartz, one-thousandth of the width of a human hair, will be suspended by an electric field and trapped in a cold, confined space, where its atomic vibrations will slow to near absolute zero.
    — Ramin Skibba, Smithsonian Magazine, 5 Feb. 2020
  • The expansion of space will cool that energy nearly to 0 kelvin, or absolute zero, signaling the heat death of the universe and total entropy.
    — Adam Mann, Science | AAAS, 11 Aug. 2020
  • William Thomson, also known as Lord Kelvin, is best known for establishing the value of absolute zero.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 2 June 2024
  • But to detect those faint emanations of heat, the telescope must be very cold — less than 45 degrees Celsius above absolute zero — so that its own heat does not wash out the heat from outer space.
    — New York Times, 2 Feb. 2021
  • The scanner is big because the sensors that measure the brain’s magnetic field need to be kept at close to absolute zero, or negative 269 degrees Celsius.
    — Megan Thielking, STAT, 21 Mar. 2018
  • Cornell and Wieman were trying to cool a puff of rubidium gas to within a few billionths of a degree of absolute zero—colder than any place in nature, even the 2.73 kelvins of space.
    — Adrian Cho, Science | AAAS, 7 Sep. 2017
  • Any matter above the temperature of absolute zero (about -273 Celsius) will emit light.
    — Phil Plait, Discover Magazine, 21 Sep. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'absolute zero.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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