billion

American  

[bil-yuhn] / ˈbɪl jən /

noun

• billions,
  plural
• billion
  plural

1. a cardinal number represented in the U.S. by 1 followed by 9 zeros, and in Great Britain by 1 followed by 12 zeros.

2. a very large number.

   I've told you so billions of times.

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adjective

1. equal in number to a billion.

billion British  

/ ˈbɪljən /

noun

1. one thousand million: it is written as 1 000 000 000 or 10 ⁹

2. (formerly, in Britain) one million million: it is written as 1 000 000 000 000 or 10 ¹²

3. (often plural) any exceptionally large number

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determiner

1. (preceded by a or a cardinal number)

   1. amounting to a billion

      it seems like a billion years ago

   2. ( as pronoun )

      we have a billion here

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• billionth
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• billion
  plural
• billions
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of billion

1680–90; < French, equivalent to b ( i )- bi- ¹ + -illion, as in million

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Compare meaning

How does billion compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• billion vs. trillion

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Explanation

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

billion billions

The Dutch health-technology company said sales rose to 4.39 billion euros, equivalent to $4.91 billion, slightly below company-compiled analyst expectations of 4.41 billion euros.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2026

The group said adjusted earnings before interest and taxes for the third quarter were 1.41 billion euros compared with 1.33 billion euros a year earlier.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2026

The oil and natural gas company reported a third-quarter profit of $1.6 billion, up from $1.02 billion a year earlier.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2026

Nasdaq-listed Grab posted third-quarter revenue of $1.11 billion, up 27% from a year earlier, while net profit rose 5.9% to $18 million.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2026

He’d gone to a conference put on by Merrill Lynch, right after they’d fired their CEO, Stan O’Neal, and disclosed $20 billion or so of their $52 billion in subprime-related losses.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

As Chinese military pressure increases, Taiwan is pouring billions of dollars into aerial and sea drones, which have been widely used in Russia's war in Ukraine and in the Strait of Hormuz with devastating effect.

From Barron's ● Nov. 3, 2026

Their surprising similarities, preserved surface characteristics, and unexpected numbers offer important clues about the processes that shaped the planets billions of years ago.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 2, 2026

As for the Venezuela deal, that country’s oil industry is in such a shambles that bringing it back to its peak output will take years and billions of investment dollars.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2026

It happened in 2001 to the telecom-equipment companies, which ended up writing off billions of dollars in vendor financing when flaky dot-com customers failed to pay.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026

Sure I was, but that was billions of miles away from here.

From "100 Sideways Miles" by Andrew Smith

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