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billion

/ˈbɪljən/
/ˈbɪljən/
IPA guide

Other forms: billions

A billion is 1,000,000,000. There are over 7 billion people in the world, the last time we checked.

While billion may sounds like a made-up number like zillion — which just means a lot — it's a very real number, specifically 1,000,000,000. That's a pretty hard number to imagine, but one way to think of it is as a thousand millions. If you have a billion dollars, you're very rich: a billionaire. Money spent by the government is often measured in billions. In England, this word often refers to a different number: 1,000,000,000,000, or one million millions.

Definitions of billion
  1. adjective
    denoting a quantity consisting of one thousand million items or units in the United States
    synonyms:
    cardinal
    being or denoting a numerical quantity but not order
  2. adjective
    denoting a quantity consisting of one million million items or units in Great Britain
    synonyms:
    cardinal
    being or denoting a numerical quantity but not order
  3. noun
    the number that is represented as a one followed by 9 zeros
    see moresee less
    types:
    milliard
    a billion
    type of:
    large integer
    an integer equal to or greater than ten
  4. noun
    the number that is represented as a one followed by 12 zeros; in the United Kingdom the usage followed in the United States is frequently seen
    see moresee less
    type of:
    large integer
    an integer equal to or greater than ten
  5. noun
    a very large indefinite number (usually used as an exaggeration)
    see moresee less
    type of:
    large indefinite amount, large indefinite quantity
    an indefinite quantity that is above the average in size or magnitude
Pronunciation
US
/ˈbɪljən/
UK
/ˈbɪljən/
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