billion
noun
Did you know?
How much is a billion? It might depend on whom you ask. Billion was borrowed from French in the late 1600s to indicate the number one million raised to the power of two, or a million million—a number represented by a 1 followed by 12 zeros. However, the French later changed their naming conventions so that a billion became a thousand million (a 1 followed by 9 zeros) and a trillion became a thousand thousand million (or a million million, the old billion). The French have since returned to the older system, but it was this new system that was adopted by American English speakers in the 1800s. In Britain, the newer system has seen increasing use since the 1950s, but the older sense is still sometimes used there as well.
Examples of billion in a Sentence
Dan Perry, Newsweek, 3 Jan. 2025
Friday on Truth Social, posting a graphic that boasted his popularity on the platform and the billions of views his official accounts and hashtags associated with him have garnered.
—Alison Durkee, Forbes, 3 Jan. 2025
Other Biden policies, like the Inflation Reduction Act, devote hundreds of billions of dollars to various industries, usually with the promise of a new jobs boom.
—James M. Hohman, National Review, 3 Jan. 2025
As has been discussed publicly, Bank of America Stadium hosts more than 40 events per year, which attracts hundreds of thousands of people every year to our region and generates thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic impact.
—Alexandria Sands, Axios, 3 Jan. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Billion.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/billion. Accessed 18 Jan. 2025.
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