Other forms: trillions
A trillion is a million million. A trillion dollars, three trillion, trillions of cells.
That is now the meaning everywhere, but Britain once used it for a million million million, and old books mean that. A trillion seconds is about thirty-two thousand years, which is the usual way of showing how far the number is beyond intuition.
1nountrillionA million million.
“The country's national debt has grown to more than two trillion dollars.”
trillion is a number.
French trillion, from tri, three, on the pattern of million — the third power of a million in the old system.
French
trillion
English, today
trillion
Built from
French trillion, from tri- (“three”) + -illion, equivalent to tri- + -illion. The noun was coined by Q5677502, because of the way the numbers read across a basketball box score.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA