billion
See also: Billion
English Edit
← 1,000,000 (106) | ← 100,000,000 (108) | 1,000,000,000 (109) | 1012 → [a], [b] | 1015 → [a], [b] |
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Cardinal: billion, milliard, thousand million Ordinal: billionth, milliardth Multiplier: billionfold, milliardfold Metric collective prefix: giga- Metric fractional prefix: nano- Number of years: giga-annum, gigayear |
← 1,000,000 (106) | [a], [b], [c] ← 1,000,000,000 (109) | 1012 | 1015 → [a], [b] | 1018 → [a], [b] |
---|---|---|---|---|
Cardinal: trillion, billion Ordinal: trillionth, billionth Multiplier: trillionfold, billionfold Metric collective prefix: tera- Metric fractional prefix: pico- |
Etymology Edit
From French billion, from bi- (“two”) + -illion.
Pronunciation Edit
Numeral Edit
billion (plural billions)
109 | Previous: | million |
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Next: | trillion |
1012 | Previous: | milliard |
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Next: | billiard |
- (US, modern British & Australian, short scale) a thousand million (logic: 1,000 × 1,0002): 1 followed by nine zeros, 109; a milliard
- 1921 January 24, “National Finances”, in Devon and Exeter Gazette, page 5:
- At the last assessment it [the national debt] amounts to seven billion pounds (£7,000,000,000).
- 2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist[4], volume 407, number 8837, page 74:
- In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result.
- 2019 October, Dan Harvey, “HS2 costs rise as schedule slips”, in Modern Railways, page 9:
- However, despite the prospect of HS2 being curtailed and the revelation that the programme is late and billions over budget, for now, at least, work on the scheme appears to be business as usual
- (dated, British & Australian, long scale) A million million (logic: 1,000,0002): a 1 followed by twelve zeros; 1012
- 1778, Francis Maseres, “A Method of Finding, by the Help of Sir Isaac Newton's Binomial Theorem, a Near Value of the very Slowly Converging Infinite Series [...]”, in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society[5], volume lxviii, number xli:
- n = 1,000,000,000,000, that is, = a billion, or the square of a million
- 2000 November 8, Stephen Ladyman, “[Speech to the House of Commons]”, in Hansard[6]:
- There is a bill to be picked up for cleaning the former Soviet countries of £1 billion. By that I mean a British billion, because when I was little I was told that a billion was a million million and then the Americans said that it was a thousand million. Well, I am talking about a million million pounds worth of clean-up to be done.
- (colloquial, hyperbolic) An unspecified very large number.
- There were billions of people at the concert.
Synonyms Edit
- (109): milliard, thousand million
- (1012): trillion (short scale)
Derived terms Edit
Related terms Edit
- trillion, coined at same time
- zillion, coined after the series million, billion, trillion, quadrillion (modern slang)
- gazillion, from same origin
- -illion, from same origin
Descendants Edit
Translations Edit
a thousand million (1,000,000,000); a milliard
|
a million million; 1,000,000,000,000 — see also trillion
|
(plural) a very large number
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
See also Edit
Danish Edit
Noun Edit
billion
- 1012
Declension Edit
Declension of billion
common gender |
Singular | Plural | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite | |
nominative | billion | billionen | billioner | billionerne |
genitive | billions | billionens | billioners | billionernes |
French Edit
← 1,000,000 (106) | ← 1,000,000,000 (109) | 1012 | 1015 → [a], [b], [c] | 1018 → [a], [b], [c] |
---|---|---|---|---|
Cardinal (traditional spelling): un billion, mille milliards Cardinal (post-1990 spelling): un-billion, mille-milliards Ordinal: billionième, millième de milliardième | ||||
French Wikipedia article on 1012 |
Etymology Edit
From bi- (“two”) + -illion; i.e., a million million.
Coined by Jehan Adam in 1475 as by-million.[1] [2] [3] Rendered as byllion by Nicolas Chuquet in 1484, in his article “Triparty en la science des nombres”.[4] [5]
Pronunciation Edit
Numeral Edit
billion m (plural billions)
Related terms Edit
- trillion, coined at same time
Descendants Edit
- → Catalan: bilió
References Edit
- ^ Bibliothèque St Geneviève, Paris, MS Français 3143 - original French manuscript by Jehan Adam
- ^ (please provide the title of the work)[1], accessed 3 July 2008, archived from the original on 2007-09-30
- ^ Lynn Thorndike, “The Arithmetic of Jehan Adam, A.D. 1475,” Science and Thought in the Fifteenth Century
- ^
Chuquet, Nicolas (1484) Triparty en la science des nombres (ISSN 9012-9458), Bologna (Italy): Aristide Marre, published 1880
Idem (accessed 2008-03-01), “Nicolas Chuquet's manuscript”, in (please provide the title of the work)[2], Published by www.miakinen.net - ^ Idem (accessed 2008-03-01), “Nicolas Chuquet's chapter”, in (please provide the title of the work)[3], Transcription by Michael Florencetime
Further reading Edit
- “billion”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Middle French Edit
Noun Edit
billion m (plural billions)