billion
billion Lexical Profile
billion Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Amounting to one thousand million (1,000,000,000) in number.
"Light travels nearly six trillion miles in a year, while our galaxy contains several hundred billion stars."
Very numerous; amounting to a vast, hyperbolic number.
"I have a billion errands to run before we leave for the airport tomorrow morning."
• noun
The number equivalent to the product of a thousand and a million (1,000,000,000 or 10^9).
"The global human population surpassed eight billion in late 2022."
An extremely large, indefinite number or amount (often used in the plural).
"The telecommunications company invested billions into upgrading its fiber-optic network."
British The number equivalent to a million million (1,000,000,000,000 or 10^12) in the older long-scale numbering system (now dated).
"In older British financial documents from the mid-twentieth century, a billion denoted a million million rather than a thousand million."
Word Nuance & Usage
Historically, British English used the long scale where a 'billion' meant a million million (1,000,000,000,000), while American English used the short scale meaning a thousand million (1,000,000,000); today, the short-scale value of one thousand million is standard across all major varieties of English.
• Rhymes for billion
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the late 17th century from French 'billion', coined by the mathematician Nicolas Chuquet in 1484 by replacing the initial 'm-' of 'million' with the Latin prefix 'bi-' (meaning 'two') to denote the second power of a million.