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billion - 4 dictionary results
bil⋅lion
[bil-yuh
n]
noun, plural -lions, (as after a numeral
) -lion, adjective –noun
| 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
| 3. | equal in number to a billion. |
Related forms:
billionth, adjective, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To billion
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Billion
Bil"lion\, n. [F. billion, arbitrarily formed fr. L. bis twice, in imitation of million a million. See Million.] According to the French and American method of numeration, a thousand millions, or 1,000,000,000; according to the English method, a million millions, or 1,000,000,000,000. See Numeration.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : billion
Spanish:
billón; millardo (Estados Unidos),
German:
die Billion; die Milliarde,
Japanese:
10億 (英国で時に兆)
billion
1690, from Fr. billion (originally byllion in Chuquet's unpublished "Le Triparty en la Science des Nombres", 1484; copied by De la Roche, 1520), from bi- "two" + (m)illion. A million million in Britain and Germany (numeration by groups of sixes), which was the original sense; subsequently altered in Fr. to "a thousand million" (numeration by groups of threes) and picked up in that form in U.S., "due in part to French influence after the Revolutionary War." France then reverted to the original meaning in 1948. British usage is truer to the etymology, but U.S. sense is increasingly common there in technical writing. Billionaire first recorded 1861 in Amer.Eng. The first in the world was likely John D. Rockefeller.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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