below zero
Temperature beneath freezing
Below zero describes temperatures colder than the freezing point of water—zero degrees on the Celsius scale, or zero Fahrenheit in American usage.
The phrase emphasizes bitter cold: It's supposed to drop below zero tonight.
Figuratively, below zero can mean extremely low or nonexistent: My enthusiasm for this project is below zero.
- frigidExtremely and intensely cold
- bone chillingProfoundly unsettling or frigid
- frostThin ice coating
- cryogenicsUltralow temperature science
- supercoolingLiquid chilled below freezing
windchill · wind chill factor · ice · ice cold · cold-hearted · minus · snow · hypothermia · chilling effect · polar vortex · deep freeze · freezing point · Kelvin scale · arctic · glaciation · dead of winter · phase transition · negative
- Cold Expressionsfreezing cold, bitter cold, bone-chilling, cold snap, cold spell
- temperaturehot, cold, warm, cool, freezing
- cold weathercold, freeze, frigid, bitter cold, cold snap
- temperaturesfreezing point, boiling point, body temperature, room temperature, ten degrees
- negativesno, not, never, none, nothing
- polar regionsAntarctica, polar bears, Arctic Ocean, glaciers, Arctic
temperature scale position
below zerowarm
Moderately heated, or friendly
hot · sweltering · scorching · boiling hot · blazing