googol

[goo-gawl, -gol, -guh l]

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noun

a number that is equal to 1 followed by 100 zeros and expressed as 10100.

Origin of googol

First recorded in 1935–40; introduced by U.S. mathematician Edward Kasner (1878–1955), whose nine-year-old nephew allegedly invented it

Can be confusedgoggle Google googol

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

Related Words for googol

sum, total, figure, statistic, count, digit, emblem, prime, symbol, character, sign, cipher, cardinal, fraction, representation, numeral, ordinal, numerator, integer, denominator

British Dictionary definitions for googol

googol

noun

the number represented as one followed by 100 zeros (10 100)

Word Origin for googol

C20: coined by E. Kasner (1878–1955), American mathematician

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 googol

1940, in "Mathematics and the Imagination," a layman's book on mathematics written by U.S. mathematicians Edward Kasner (1878-1955) and James R. Newman, the word supposedly coined a year or two before by Kasner's 9- (or 8-) year-old nephew (unnamed in the book's account of the event), when asked for a name for an enormous number. Perhaps influenced by comic strip character Barney Google. Googolplex coined at the same time, in the same way.

googol in Science

googol

[gōō′gôl′, gōō′gəl]

The number 10 raised to the 100th power (10100), written out as 1 followed by 100 zeros.