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googol

 [goo-gawl, -gol, -guhl]   Origin

goo·gol

   [goo-gawl, -gol, -guhl]
noun
a number that is equal to 1 followed by 100 zeros and expressed as 10100.
Origin:
1935–40; introduced by U.S. mathematician Edward Kasner (1878–1955), whose nine-year-old nephew allegedly invented it

Can be confused: goggle, Google, googol.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To googol

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Googol is always a great word to know.
So is ninnyhammer. Does it mean:
the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.
a fool or simpleton; ninny.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
googol (ˈɡuːɡɒl, -ɡəl)
 
—n
the number represented as one followed by 100 zeros (10100)
 
[C20: coined by E. Kasner (1878--1955), American mathematician]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

googol
1940, in "Mathematics and the Imagination," a layman's book on mathematics written by U.S. mathematicians Edward Kasner (1878-1955) and James R. Newman, the word supposedly coined a year or two before by Kasner's 9- (or 8-) year-old nephew (unnamed in the book's account of the event), when asked for
EXPAND
a name for an enormous number. Perhaps influenced by comic strip character Barney Google.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Science Dictionary
googol   (g'gôl', g'gəl)  Pronunciation Key 
The number 10 raised to the 100th power (10100), written out as 1 followed by 100 zeros.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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FOLDOC
Computing Dictionary

googol definition

mathematics
The number represented in base-ten by a one with a hundred zeroes after it.
According to Webster's Dictionary, the name was coined in 1938 by Milton Sirotta, the nine-year-old nephew of American mathematician, Edward Kasner.
See also googolplex.
(2001-03-29)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © Denis Howe 2010 http://foldoc.org
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