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.

---

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

---

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

Etymology

Origin of billion

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

Compare meaning

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

• billion vs. trillion

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

Saudi Arabia’s travel and tourism sector grew by 7.4% last year, nearly twice the global rate, and contributed $178 billion to the country’s GDP, the World Travel & Tourism Council said in April.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2026

In September, the board proposed a $2.45 billion Gaza recovery plan at a meeting of its members and stakeholders, in an effort meant to span over six months.

From Barron's ● Oct. 10, 2026

Ireland recommended hiking some of the levies but stuck more or less to the commission's original lines, saying the measures it was putting forward would raise 55 billion euros a year.

From Barron's ● Oct. 10, 2026

Musk holds a 48.4% equity stake in SpaceX, which represents approximately 6.42 billion shares across common stock, options and unvested performance awards, according to an August SEC filing.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026

Or, as Lippmann actually put it—according to someone who heard the exchange—Dude, you owe us one point two billion.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

And while it’s easy to create wealth through raising billions in capital or taking on debt, turning paper money into actual cash is harder to do.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 10, 2026

Many analysts still lean bullish on AI infrastructure, pointing to the hundreds of billions of dollars in spending planned globally.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

Signal has an estimated 40-70 million users - a drop in the ocean next to WhatsApp, which has billions.

From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026

But tit-for-tat tariffs between the world's two biggest economies caused billions in US agriculture export losses between 2018 and 2019.

From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026

With a foreign debt now in the billions, any hope that was left for our Independence is handcuffed in debtor’s prison.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver