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billion

[ bil-yuhn ]

noun

, plural bil·lions, (as after a numeral) bil·lion.
  1. a cardinal number represented in the U.S. by 1 followed by 9 zeros, and in Great Britain by 1 followed by 12 zeros.
  2. a very large number:

    I've told you so billions of times.



adjective

  1. equal in number to a billion.

billion

/ ˈbɪljən /

noun

  1. one thousand million: it is written as 1 000 000 000 or 10 9
  2. (formerly, in Britain) one million million: it is written as 1 000 000 000 000 or 10 12
  3. often plural any exceptionally large number


determiner

  1. preceded by a or a cardinal number
    1. amounting to a billion

      it seems like a billion years ago

    2. ( as pronoun )

      we have a billion here

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Derived Forms

  • ˈbillionth, adjectivenoun

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Other Words From

  • billionth adjective noun

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Word History and Origins

Origin of billion1

1680–90; < French, equivalent to b ( i )- bi- 1 + -illion, as in million

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Word History and Origins

Origin of billion1

C17: from French, from bi- 1+ -llion as in million

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Example Sentences

Using standard methods, the cost of printing DNA could run upwards of a billion dollars or more, depending on the strand.

And as a bonus, they send home more than $20 billion in remittances each year.

The amount of vanished bitcoins was 650,000 BTC (or 24.7 billion yen).

Why else would $4 billion have been spent on the midterm election?

Among other things, the bill appropriates $1.1 trillion in funding—including over $550 billion for the Department of Defense.

Expenditure for new manufacturing plant and equipment exceeded one billion dollars in one recent seven-year period.

He had never imagined wild flowers by the billion, nor such a harmonious variety of color.

Oh, it's worth a billion milrays to look upon a live person again!

Well, I'll just bet you a million billion dollars He can't make a trolley car go in two directions at the same time.

"Over three and a half billion eggs and small fish were distributed last year, if I remember rightly," was the reply.

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Billings methodbillionaire