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billion

num
/ˈbɪljən/

Etymology

From French billion, equivalent to bi- (“two”) + -illion.

  1. derived from billion

Definitions

  1. Either of two large amounts

    Either of two large amounts:

    • At the last assessment it [the national debt] amounts to seven billion pounds (£7,000,000,000).
    • In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result.
    • However, despite the prospect of HS2 being curtailed and the revelation that the programme is late and billions over budget, for now, at least, work on the scheme appears to be business as usual

  2. An unspecified very large number.

    • Near-synonyms: gazillion; see also Thesaurus:zillion
    • There were billions of people at the concert.

The neighborhood

Derived

Barbillion, billionaire, billion-dollar grass, billion-dollar question, billion laughs, Boring Billion, centibillion, golden billion, megabillion, multi-billion, multibillion, multibillions

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for billion. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA