billion

See also Billion

English

Etymology

From French billion

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈbɪljən/, SAMPA: /"bIlj@n/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪljən
• Hyphenation: bil‧lion

Cardinal number

cardinal number
109
	Previous:	million
	Next:	trillion

cardinal number
1012
	Previous:	milliard
	Next:	billiard

billion (plural billions)

1. (US, modern British & Australian, short scale) A milliard, a thousand million: 1 followed by nine zeros, 10⁹.
2. (obsolete British & Australian, long scale) A million million: a 1 followed by twelve zeros, 10¹².
3. (colloquial, plural) A very large number.

   There were billions of people at the concert

See also

• (short scale) Previous: million. Next trillion:
• (long scale) Previous: milliard. Next billiard:
• ISO prefix: giga-

Derived terms

• billionaire

Related terms

• trillion, coined at same time

Translations

a thousand million; 1,000,000,000; 10⁹; a milliard

Arabic: مليار (ar) (milyaar) m. Armenian: միլիարդ (hy) (miliard) Belarusian: мільярд (be) (mil'járd) m. Bosnian: milijarda (bs) f. Breton: miliard Bulgarian: милиард (bg) (milliard) m. Catalan: mil milió (usual); miliard (ca) (rare) Chinese: Mandarin: 十億 (cmn), 十亿 (cmn) (shíyì) Croatian: milijarda (hr) Czech: miliarda (cs) f. Danish: milliard (da) Dutch: miljard (nl) n. Esperanto: miliardo (eo) Estonian: miljard (et) Finnish: miljardi (fi) French: milliard (fr) m., (obsolete) billion (fr) m. German: Milliarde (de) f. Greek: δισεκατομμύριο (el) (disekatommýrio) n. Hebrew: מיליארד (he) (miliárd) Hindi: अरब (hi) (arab) Hungarian: milliárd (hu) Indonesian: milyar Interlingua: milliardo Italian: miliardo (it)

Japanese: 十億 (ja) (じゅうおく, jū-oku) Korean: 십억 (ko) (sip-eok) (十億 (ko)) Latvian: miljards Macedonian: милијарда (mk) (milijárda) f. Malay: seribu juta (ms) Maltese: biljun Navajo: biyóón Norwegian: milliard (no) Novial: miliarde Persian: بیلیون (fa) Polish: miliard (pl) Portuguese: bilhão (pt) m. Romanian: miliard (ro) n. Romansch: milliarda (rm) f., milliard (rm) m. Russian: миллиард (ru) (milliárd) m., (seldom) биллион (ru) (billión) Serbian: Cyrillic: милијарда f. Roman: milijarda f. Slovak: miliarda f. (1) Slovene: milijarda (sl) Spanish: millardo (es) m., mil millones (es) m. Swahili: bilioni (sw) Swedish: miljard (sv) c. Tatar: milliard (миллиард) Turkmen: milliard (tk) Ukrainian: мільярд (uk) (mil'járd) m. Vietnamese: tỉ (vi), tỷ (vi)

a million million; 1,000,000,000,000; 10¹²

Arabic: تريليون (ar) (trilyuun) m. Catalan: bilió (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 兆 (cmn) (zhào) Czech: bilión (cs) m. Dutch: biljoen Esperanto: duiliono (eo) Finnish: biljoona (fi) French: billion (fr) German: Billion (de)

Greek: τρισεκατομμύριο n. Japanese: 兆 (ja) (ちょう, chō) Novial: bilione Polish: bilion (pl) Portuguese: bilião (pt) m. (Portugal), trilhão (pt) m. (Brazil) Russian: триллион (ru) (trillión) m. Slovak: bilión (sk) m. Spanish: billón (es) m. Swedish: triljon (sv) c., biljon (sv) c. Urdu: مِلْيُن (ur)

(plural) a very large number

French: milliards (fr) m. pl., millions (fr) m. pl.

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Sinhalese: බිලියනය (biliyanaya)

Turkish: milyar (tr) Welsh: biliwn (cy) (1)

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French

Etymology

From bi- (“two”) + -illion; i.e. a million million.

Coined by Jehan Adam in 1475 as by-million. Rendered as byllion by Nicolas Chuquet in 1484, in his article “Triparty en la science des nombres”.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /bi.ljɔ̃/, SAMPA: /bi.ljO~/

Cardinal number

billion

1. 10¹²; a long scale billion; a short scale trillion.

Usage notes

• Previous: milliard, 10⁹
• Next: billiard, 10¹⁵

Related terms

• trillion, coined at same time

Descendants

• Catalan: bilió