-illion

English

Etymology

Back-formation from million, billion, trillion, quadrillion, each from French.

Suffix

-illion

1. 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.
2. Added to various nonsense syllables to indicate an arbitrarily very large number.

Usage notes

• The words formed by combining the Latin prefix for the name of an integer $n$ ($n>1$) with this suffix may mean $1,000,000^{n}$ or $1000^{n+1}$ 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.

Derived terms

• Category:English words suffixed with -illion

See also

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