billion

num

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

1. 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.”

2. Either of two large amounts:

   “n = 1,000,000,000,000, that is, = a billion, or the square of a million”

   “There is a bill to be picked up for cleaning the former Soviet countries of £1 billion. By that I mean a British billion, because when I was little I was told that a billion was a million million and then the Americans said that it was a thousand million. Well, I am talking about a million million pounds worth of clean-up to be done.”

3. An unspecified very large number.

   “Near-synonyms: gazillion; see also Thesaurus:zillion”

   “There were billions of people at the concert.”