sextillion

American  

[seks-til-yuhn] / sɛksˈtɪl yən /

noun

sextillions plural

1. a cardinal number represented in the U.S. by 1 followed by 21 zeros, and in Great Britain by 1 followed by 36 zeros.

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adjective

1. amounting to one sextillion in number.

sextillion British  

/ sɛksˈtɪljən /

noun

1. (in Britain, France, and Germany) the number represented as one followed by 36 zeros (10 ³⁶ )

2. (in the US and Canada) the number represented as one followed by 21 zeros (10 ²¹ )

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• sextillionth
  adjective

Inflected Forms

noun

• sextillions
  plural
• sextillion
  plural

Etymology

Origin of sextillion

1680–90; < French < Latin sext ( us ) sixth + -illion, as in million

Example Sentences

During the worst of the crisis the government stopped publishing official inflation figures but one estimate put the inflation rate at 89.7 sextillion percent year-on-year in mid-November 2008.

From BBC • Jul. 6, 2022

Less than one in about 600 sextillion, in fact, Cronin says.

From Scientific American • Nov. 23, 2021

Put together, the oceans have taken in a whopping 228 sextillion Joules' worth of heat, the scientists concluded.

From Fox News • Jan. 15, 2020

Your lungs will inhale and exhale about 300 sextillion oxygen molecules.

From New York Times • Oct. 15, 2019

Somewhere on this planet among its sextillion grains of sand.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr