English

billion

• Western (Arabic) Numeral billion, 10⁹
  • Last: million, 10⁶
  • Next: trillion, 10¹²

Etymology

bi-, two + -illion, from million; ie, a million million

Cardinal number

1. (US; modern British & Australian) A thousand million; a 1 followed by nine zeros; 10⁹.
2. (Archaic US; obsolete British & Australian) A million millions; 1 followed by twelve zeros; 10¹².
3. (colloquial, in plural billions) A very large number.

   There were billions of people at the concert

ISO prefix: giga-

Derived terms

• billionaire

Translations

• Bosnian: milijarda f
• Breton: miliard
• Chinese: 10億 ,十億 /十亿
• Dutch: miljard n
• Esperanto: miliardo (1), duiliono (2)
• Estonian: miljard
• Finnish: miljardi (1), biljoona (2)
• French: milliard m (1), billion m (2)
• German: die Milliarde f
• Greek: δισεκατομμύριο (disekatommýrio)

  milliárd

• Indonesian: milyar
• Interlingua: milliardo
• Italian: miliardo
• Japanese: 1×10⁹ = 10×10⁸ = 十億 (じゅうおく, jū-oku)
• Polish: miliard
• Portuguese: bilhão
• Romanian: miliard n
• Slovak: miliarda f (1)
• Slovio: gigalion
• Spanish: mil millones (note : the word millardo is very rare in Spanish, so, for example, three billion is translated as tres mil millones) (1), billón (2)
• Swedish: miljard
• Welsh: biliwn (1)
• Turkish: milyar

French

1. billion (10¹²)
2. trillion (10¹²)