zillion

English

Etymology

See -illion. An arbitrary coinage, appearing by 1916.

Pronunciation

• enPR: zĭl'yən, IPA^(key): /ˈzɪljən/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪljən

Noun

zillion (plural zillions)

2. (slang, hyperbolic) An unspecified large number (of).

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:zillion

   • 1995, Sega Multimedia Studio, Wild Woody, Sega, scene: ending:

     Low Man: 'Thanks again, Woody. I'll see you next time the world needs saving.' / Woody: 'Pfft, yeah. Only if we sell a zillion units!'

   • 2008 December 6, “Brain tests show child wealth gap”, in BBC News:

     "We are certainly not blaming lower socioeconomic families for not talking to their kids - there are probably a zillion reasons why that happens."

Derived terms

• zillionaire
• zillionth

Translations

unspecified large number

• Armenian: ծիծիլիոն (cicilion)
• Dutch: ton (nl) f, ziljoen (nl) n
• Esperanto: umiliono
• Finnish: tsiljoona
• French: trouzillion (fr) m
• Galician: millenta
• Hebrew: מָלַאנְתַּלָּפִים (he) pl (malantalafim)
• Hungarian: csillió
• Icelandic: skrilljón f
• Italian: fantastilione m, millemila
• Korean: 골백 (golbaek)
• Macedonian: катаљарда f (kataljarda)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ørten, fantasillion (no) m, zillion m

• Persian: شونصد (šunsad) (slang)
• Polish: zylion m
• Portuguese: zilhão (pt), zilião
• Russian: охрениллион m (okhrenillion),
• Spanish: (Chile, Guatemala, Mexico, Spain) chorrocientos, (Chile, Guatemala, Mexico) chorromil, (Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Peru, Puerto Rico) cuchucientos, (Latin America) cuchumil, (Colombia) ^{(please verify)} enemil, (River Plate) quichicientas, (Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Uruguay) sepetecientos, (Panama, Venezuela) sopotocientos, (Spain) tropecientos, chiquicientas (River Plate), chorroscientos (Mesoamerica)
• Swedish: ziljon (sv) c, fantasiljon (sv) c
• Turkish: zilyon, zibilyon

Further reading

• Indefinite and fictitious numbers on Wikipedia.Wikipedia