squillion

English

Etymology

See +‎ -illion

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈskwɪljən/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪljən

Noun

squillion (plural squillions)

1. (slang, used hyperbolically) A very large, unspecified number (of).
   • 1974, Fynn, Mister God, This Is Anna, Ballantine Books (2000), →ISBN, pages 102-103:

     The word million was adequate for most things, billion came in handy on occasions, but if you wanted to use a word for a very, very large number, you just had to invent one. Anna invented one: a squillion.

   • 1990, Terry Pratchett, Eric, page 138:

     You thinks to yourself, ‘There’s a billion, trillion squillion of them, no one’s going to notice.’ But that’s where professionalism comes in, sort of thing.

   • 2004 May 7, Xaonon, “Re: Entropy”, in talk.origins‎^[1] (Usenet):

     It'll just take a squillion times longer than the age of the universe to happen.

   • 2004 May 8, Noelle S. Alito, “Re: Entropy”, in talk.origins‎^[2] (Usenet):

     I just ran the numbers and got 1.7 squillion, myself.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:zillion.

Translations

very large, unspecified number — see zillion

See also

• Indefinite and fictitious numbers on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• quillions