billion

UK/ˈbɪljən/US/ˈbɪljən/

nounA2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechleans written

Other forms: billions

A billion is a one followed by nine zeros. A billion pounds.

It meant a million million in Britain until the 1970s, which is why old books confuse people. A billion seconds is about thirty-two years, which is the easiest way to feel the size.

Definitions of billion

1nounbillionA one followed by nine zeros — a thousand millions.A2
“A billion is a thousand times larger than most people picture.”

billion is a number.

Where it comes from

French billion is bi plus the ending of million.

French
billion
English, today
billion

Borrowed from French billion. From billion, equivalent to bi + illion.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in School & Learning

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billion in the wild

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and Forbes, he was the world's wealthiest person from 2017 to 2021, and in 2026, his net worth was approximately US$284 billion.
Jeff Bezos
No signal can travel faster than light and the universe has only existed for about 14 billion years.
Observable universe
The comoving distance to the edge of the observable universe is about 14.3 billion parsecs, about 2% larger.
Observable universe
With over $100 billion in capital at its onset, SoftBank's Vision Fund is the world's largest technology-focused venture capital fund.
SoftBank Group
The project is estimated to cost $500 billion.
SoftBank Group

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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