English

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Etymology

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Back-formation from million, then used in billion, trillion, quadrillion, each from French, ultimately from Italian mille (thousand) and the augmentative suffix -one. -illion was segmented from million as if mi- was a prefix, and -illion the stem.

Suffix

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-illion

  1. Combined with Latin prefixes for names of integers in order to form names of powers of a million.
    bi- + ‎-illion → ‎billion
    tri- + ‎-illion → ‎trillion
  2. Added to various nonsense syllables to indicate an arbitrarily very large number.

Usage notes

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  • The words formed with this suffix may mean either   or   in different nations and languages. Hence billion can mean “one million million” or “one thousand million”. See   Long and short scales on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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French

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Etymology

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Back-formation from million, ultimately from Italian mille (thousand) and the augmentative suffix -one. -illion was segmented from million as if mi- was a prefix, and -illion the stem.

Pronunciation

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Suffix

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-illion m (plural -illions)

  1. -illion

Derived terms

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