million
[mil-yuh n]
- a cardinal number, a thousand times one thousand.
- a symbol for this number, as 1,000,000 or M̅.
- millions, a number between 1,000,000 and 999,999,999, as in referring to an amount of money: His fortune was in the millions of dollars.
- the amount of a thousand thousand units of money, as pounds, dollars, or francs: The three Dutch paintings fetched a million.
- a very great number of times: Thanks a million.
- the million(s), the mass of the common people; the multitude: poetry for the millions.
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- amounting to one million in number.
- amounting to a very great number: a million things to do.
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Origin of million
1350–1400; Middle English milioun < Middle French < early Italian millione, equivalent to mille thousand (< Latin) + -one augmentative suffix
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for million
Contemporary Examples
Added to drinking water at concentrations of around one part per million, fluoride ions stick to dental plaque.
According to the USDA, student participation began to fall, with 1.4 million students opting out of the lunch program entirely.
In 2008, Huckabee raised a little over $16 million, with less than $55,000 coming from political action committees.
By contrast, John McCain, the eventual GOP nominee, had raised approximately $12.7 million in the first quarter of 2007 alone.
Travel Noire fellows earned about a half million travel miles in 2014.
Historical Examples
I told Coplen to offer her a million cash for everything rather'n have any fuss.
The SpendersHarry Leon Wilson
Losing a million a minute, even in sleep, he thought, was disquieting.
The SpendersHarry Leon Wilson
At least, I do not care about so much as he has,—more than a million dollars, only think!
MalboneThomas Wentworth Higginson
Now say, 'Emma, you are one in a million, and a cook besides.'
Grace Harlowe's Return to Overton CampusJessie Graham Flower
It is computed that the expense would not exceed a million and a half sterling.
million
- the cardinal number that is the product of 1000 multiplied by 1000See also number (def. 1)
- a numeral, 1 000 000, 10 6, M, etc, representing this number
- (often plural) informal an extremely large but unspecified number, quantity, or amountI have millions of things to do
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- (preceded by a or by a numeral)
- amounting to a milliona million light years away
- (as pronoun)I can see a million under the microscope
- gone a million Australian informal done for; sunk
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Word Origin
C17: via Old French from early Italian millione, from mille thousand, from Latin
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for million
n.
late 14c., from Old French million (late 13c.), from Italian millione (now milione), literally "a great thousand," augmentative of mille "thousand," from Latin mille, which is of uncertain origin. Used mainly by mathematicians until 16c. India, with its love of large numbers, had names before 3c. for numbers well beyond a billion. The ancient Greeks had no name for a number greater than ten thousand, the Romans for none higher than a hundred thousand. "A million" in Latin would have been decies centena milia, literally "ten hundred thousand." Million to one as a type of "long odds" is attested from 1761. Related: Millions.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with million
million
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.