[Dwedit]

Denormals happen to be the way that Zero can even be represented at all?

[aleph_minus_one]

For zeros (+0 and -0), there exist special representations in the IEEE 754 standard. Denormalized numbers are a different concept.

[Dwedit]

Zero is a denormal number where the mantissa is zero. If you disallow denormals and treat them all as zero, then actual zero follows as well.