Hardly vs Null - What's the difference?
hardly | null |
(manner, obsolete) Firmly, vigorously, with strength or exertion.
*, Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.148:
(manner, archaic) Harshly, severely.
With difficulty.
*, Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.234:
* 1977 , , The Honourable Schoolboy , Folio Society 2010, p. 40:
(degree) Barely, only just, almost not.
* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=November 3, author=David Ornstein, work=BBC Sport
, title= * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-06, volume=408, issue=8843, page=68, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= Not really.
A non-existent or empty value or set of values.
Zero]] quantity of [[expression, expressions; nothing.
Something that has no force or meaning.
(computing) the ASCII or Unicode character (), represented by a zero value, that indicates no character and is sometimes used as a string terminator.
(computing) the attribute of an entity that has no valid value.
One of the beads in nulled work.
(statistics) null hypothesis
Having no validity, "null and void"
insignificant
* 1924 , Marcel Proust, Within a Budding Grove :
absent or non-existent
(mathematics) of the null set
(mathematics) of or comprising a value of precisely zero
(genetics, of a mutation) causing a complete loss of gene function, amorphic.
As an adverb hardly
is (manner|obsolete) firmly, vigorously, with strength or exertion.As an interjection hardly
is not really.As a noun null is
zero, nil; the cardinal number before einn.hardly
English
Adverb
(en-adv)- Let him hardly be possest with an honest curiositie to search out the nature and causes of all things.
- And what gentle flame soever doth warme the heart of young virgins, yet are they hardly drawne to leave and forgoe their mothers, to betake them to their husbands.
- While in Chelsea, Anne Smiley pined, taking very hardly to her unaccustomed role of wife abandoned.
Macc Tel-Aviv 1-2 Stoke, passage=With this the second of three games in seven days for Stoke, it was hardly surprising to see nine changes from the side that started against Newcastle in the Premier League on Monday.}}
The rise of smart beta, passage=Investors face a quandary. Cash offers a return of virtually zero in many developed countries; government-bond yields may have risen in recent weeks but they are still unattractive. Equities have suffered two big bear markets since 2000 and are wobbling again. It is hardly surprising that pension funds, insurers and endowments are searching for new sources of return.}}
Usage notes
In the sense "barely", it is grammatically a negative word. It therefore collocates with ever rather than never. * Compare example sentence with I almost never watch televisionSynonyms
* barely, just, only just, scarcelyInterjection
(en interjection)- I think the Beatles are a really overrated band. &
- x2015; Hardly !
Statistics
* English degree adverbsnull
English
Noun
(en noun)- (Francis Bacon)
- Since no date of birth was entered for the patient, his age is null .
Adjective
(en adjective)- In proportion as we descend the social scale our snobbishness fastens on to mere nothings which are perhaps no more null than the distinctions observed by the aristocracy, but, being more obscure, more peculiar to the individual, take us more by surprise.