billion

[ bil-yuh n ]

/ ˈbɪl yən /

noun, plural bil·lions, (as after a numeral) bil·lion.

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

a very large number: I've told you so billions of times.

adjective

equal in number to a billion.

Nearby words

Origin of billion

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

Related formsbil·lionth, adjective, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for billion

Using standard methods, the cost of printing DNA could run upwards of a billion dollars or more, depending on the strand.
Design Your Own Dinosaur: The Era of Custom DNA|Justin Jones|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
And as a bonus, they send home more than $20 billion in remittances each year.
Why Mexicans Are Enraged by Obama’s Big Tuesday Meeting|Ruben Navarrette Jr.|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The amount of vanished bitcoins was 650,000 BTC (or 24.7 billion yen).
Japanese Bitcoin Heist ‘an Inside Job,’ Not Hackers Alone|Nathalie-Kyoko Stucky, Jake Adelstein|January 1, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Why else would $4 billion have been spent on the midterm election?
When Will We See a #Millennial Congress?|Linda Killian|December 26, 2014|DAILY BEAST

Among other things, the bill appropriates $1.1 trillion in funding—including over $550 billion for the Department of Defense.
Merry Christmas, Defense Contractors!|Veronique de Rugy|December 22, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Suppose I fixed up a storage-pack to give me a field with a few billion watts in it?
Operation: Outer Space|William Fitzgerald Jenkins
The trade of Germany and the United States has increased from 7.6 to 38 billion marks.
New York Times Current History: The European War from the Beginning to March 1915, Vol 1, No. 2|Various
And the continued high interest rates last year cost the government about $5 billion more than anticipated.
Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to 2006|Various
A total of $2 billion in Federal grants will ultimately be required to finance these 955 projects.
Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to 2006|Various
We cut $255 billion in spending, including entitlements, in over 340 separate budget items.
Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to 2006|Various

British Dictionary definitions for billion

billion

/ (ˈbɪljən) /

noun plural -lions or -lion

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

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

(often plural) any exceptionally large number

determiner

(preceded by a or a cardinal number)

amounting to a billionit seems like a billion years ago
(as pronoun)we have a billion here

Derived Formsbillionth, adjective, noun

Word Origin for billion

C17: from French, from bi- 1 + -llion as in million

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for billion

billion

1680s, from French billion (originally byllion in Chuquet's unpublished "Le Triparty en la Science des Nombres," 1484; copied by De la Roche, 1520), from bi- "two" (see bi-) + (m)illion. A million million in Britain and Germany (numeration by groups of sixes), which was the original sense; subsequently altered in French to "a thousand million" (numeration by groups of threes) and picked up in that form in U.S., "due in part to French influence after the Revolutionary War" [David E. Smith, "History of Mathematics," 1925]. France then reverted to the original meaning in 1948. British usage is truer to the etymology, but U.S. sense is said to be increasingly common there in technical writing.