rhizoverbBeta
Dictionarybillion
number

billion

One thousand million.

The company reports sales of one billion dollars this year.

Etymology
biLatintwo
+llionFrenchmillion

The name was coined from two and million for a million squared. A different numbering convention later assigned billion its current U.S. value of one thousand million.

More examples

  • A billion equals one thousand million.
  • The project will cost several billion dollars.
  • The database stores more than a billion records.

Similar words

million
One thousandth of a billion.
trillion
One thousand times a billion.