Abbr. once paired with zero Crossword Clue

A warm welcome to all crossword lovers!
Its time to solve "Abbr. once paired with zero" crossword clue for today's "Wall Street Journal" daily crossword.

Understanding Today's Crossword Puzzle

The clue "Abbr. once paired with zero" leads us to the answer "OPER". Here's why:

• Abbreviation: The clue indicates that we are looking for an abbreviation. The word "Abbr." is a hint for this.
• Once paired: The phrase "once paired" suggests that the abbreviation we're searching for used to be commonly paired with the number zero.

Putting these clues together, we can determine that the answer "OPER" fits the given clue. Here's the detailed explanation:

1. The abbreviation "OPER" is short for "operator".
2. In the past, telephones used to have rotary dials, and when dialing a phone number, the user had to rotate the dial to enter each digit. The number zero on these rotary dials was paired with the letters "O" and "P". Hence, the abbreviation "OPER" was once paired with zero on telephone dials.
3. However, with the advent of touch-tone phones, the zero key is typically labeled with the letters "O" and "Q" instead of "O" and "P". As a result, the pairing of zero with "OPER" has become less common.

Therefore, the answer to the clue "Abbr. once paired with zero" is "OPER".

 The Crossword clue "Abbr. once paired with zero" published 1 time/s & has 1 answer/s. 

Crossword	Date	Answer
Wall Street Journal	9 December 2017	OPER