-illion
Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary
Contents |
[edit] English
[edit] Etymology
From million, from Latin mille, thousand, plus augmentative suffix -ion or -on (literally big thousand)
[edit] Suffix
-illion
- Combined with Latin prefixes for names of integers in order to form names of powers of a million or of a thousand greater than 1,000,000. Thus we have the names billion, trillion, etc.
- Added to various nonsense syllables to indicate an arbitrarily very large number.
[edit] Usage notes
- The word formed by combining the Latin prefix for the name of an integer n (n > 1) with this suffix may mean 1,000,000n or 1000n + 1 depending on national practices. Hence billion can mean “million million” or “thousand million”. See the usage notes at Wiktionary’s appendix on numbers for more information.
