year zero
Starting point, calendrically
Year zero is a reference point marking a complete break from the past—a fresh start where history begins anew.
The concept gained notoriety through the Khmer Rouge's declaration of Year Zero in 1975 Cambodia, erasing all prior culture and institutions.
The term now describes any radical attempt to reset society or ideology: The revolution promised a year zero for the nation.
In calendrical terms, there is no year zero between 1 BC and AD 1 in the common Western system, though astronomers use one for calculations.
- originStarting point or source
- beginningInitial stage of something
- new beginningChance to start again
- resetRestore to original state
- clean slateRecord wiped clear
revolution · scorched earth · calendar · epoch · Khmer Rouge · Cambodia · Pol Pot · killing fields · mass graves · genocide · rebirth · tabula rasa · restart · regime · ideology · social engineering · purge · agrarian
- beginningsbegin, beginning, start, first, opening
- calendarscalendar, calendar day, calendar month, lunar calendar, almanac
- years
- Postwar AsiaKorean War, Vietnam War, Chinese Revolution, Cultural Revolution, Tiananmen Square
- Cambodia HistoryCambodia, Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot, Phnom Penh, killing fields
- calendar quirksleap day, intercalation, Metonic cycle, precession, Julian calendar
year zeroapocalypse
Total civilizational collapse
end of days · doomsday · terminus · last days · end times
year zerotradition
Custom passed through generations
continuity · historical preservation · heritage · ancestral legacy · cultural memory