billion
Syllables: bil·lion/ˈbɪljən/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Australia/ˈbɪ(l)jən/
billion numeral: a thousand million (logic: 1,000 × 1,000²): 1 followed by nine zeros, 10⁹.
Numeral
billion (plural billions)
- a thousand million (logic: 1,000 × 1,000²): 1 followed by nine zeros, 10⁹.
- At the last assessment it [the national debt] amounts to seven billion pounds (£7,000,000,000).1921 January 24, “National Finances”, in Devon and Exeter Gazette, page 5
- In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result.2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8837, page 74
- Synonyms:
- milliard, thousand million
- A million million (logic: 1,000,000²): a 1 followed by twelve zeros (10¹²); a thousand milliard.
- n = 1,000,000,000,000, that is, = a billion, or the square of a million1778, Francis Maseres, “A Method of Finding, by the Help of Sir Isaac Newton's Binomial Theorem, a Near Value of the very Slowly Converging Infinite Series …”, in Philosophical Transactions of the...
- There is a bill to be picked up for cleaning the former Soviet countries of £1 billion. By that I mean a British billion, because when I was little I was told that a billion was a million million and then the Americans said that it was a thousand million. Well, I am talking about a million million...2000 November 8, Stephen Ladyman, “[Speech to the House of Commons]”, in Hansard
- Synonyms:
- trillion[short scale]]>
- An unspecified very large number.
- Near-synonyms: gazillion; see also Thesaurus:zillion
- There were billions of people at the concert.
- Synonyms:
- gazillion
billion meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
billion in Hindi
- a thousand million (1,000,000,000); a milliard
- अरब arab, अर्बुद arbud, अब्ज abj
billion in Tamil
- a thousand million (1,000,000,000); a milliard
- நூறுகோடி nūṟukōṭi
billion in Marathi
- a thousand million (1,000,000,000); a milliard
- अब्ज abja
billion in Urdu
- a thousand million (1,000,000,000); a milliard
- ارب arab
- a million million; 1,000,000,000,000 — see also trillion
- مِلْیُن milyun
More languagesFewer languages
- billion in Bengali
- বিলিয়ন biliẏon
- billion in Malayalam
- നൂറ് കോടി nūṟŭ kōṭi, ശതകോടി śatakōṭi, അറബ് aṟabŭ, ബില്ല്യൺ billyaṇ
- billion in Kannada
- ಶತಕೋಟಿ, ಒಂದು ಸಾವಿರ ಮಿಲಿಯನ್, ಬಿಲಿಯನ್
- billion in Sanskrit
- अब्ज abja, अर्बुद arbuda, महापद्म mahāpadma
- billion in Nepali
- अरब१ araba1, अर्बुद arbud
- billion in Tagalog
- libong-angaw, bilyon, gatos, sanggatos
- billion in Arabic
- مِلْيَار milyār
- billion in Malay
- seribu juta, bilion, ribu juta, miliar
- billion in Indonesian
- miliar
- billion in Persian
- میلیارد milyârd, بیلیون bilyun, تریلیون trilyun
- billion in Thai
- พันล้าน pan-láan
- billion in Vietnamese
- một tỉ, tỉ, tỷ
- billion in Myanmar
- ပကောဋိ pa.kau:ti., ဘီလီယံ bhiliyam
Examples of billion in a sentence
- However, despite the prospect of HS2 being curtailed and the revelation that the programme is late and billions over budget, for now, at least, work on the scheme appears to be business as usual2019 October, Dan Harvey, “HS2 costs rise as schedule slips”, in Modern Railways, page 9:
- Plaintiff States also receive billions of dollars in funds every year directly from Treasury through BFS under federal grant programs.2025 February 8, “COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY AND INJUNCTIVE RELIEF”, in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York...
- There is a bill to be picked up for cleaning the former Soviet countries of £1 billion.2000 November 8, Stephen Ladyman, “[Speech to the House of Commons]”, in Hansard:
Synonyms of billion
- milliard
- thousand million
- trillion[short scale]]>
- gazillion
Forms of billion
| plural | billions |
|---|
Origin of billion
From French billion, equivalent to bi- (“two”) + -illion.
Words formed from billion
Phrases with billion
Words that rhyme with billion
- pavilion
- vermilion
- pillion
- novemdecillion
- quintillion
- trillion
- Brazilian
- Castilian
- centillion
- decillion
- duodecillion
- duovigintillion
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- million
- nonillion
- octillion
- octodecillion
- quadrillion
- quattuordecillion
- quattuorvigintillion
- quindecillion
- septendecillion
- septillion
- sexdecillion
- sextillion
- tredecillion
- trevigintillion
- trigintillion
- undecillion
- unvigintillion
- duotrigintillion
- gazillion
- gillian
- gillion
- godzillion
- gorillion
- Jillian
- jillion
- Kabylian
- Luxulyan
- mandilion
- mandylion
- Maximilian
- millillion
- millinillion
- novemtrigintillion
- novemvigintillion
- octogintillion
- octotrigintillion
- octovigintillion
- quadragintillion
- quattuortrigintillion
- quinquagintillion
- quinvigintillion
- septentrigintillion
- septenvigintillion
- sextrigintillion
- sexvigintillion
- squillion
- untrigintillion
- vigintillion
Questions about billion
- What does billion mean?
- Billion means a thousand million (logic: 1,000 × 1,000²): 1 followed by nine zeros, 10⁹.
- What is billion in Hindi?
- Billion in Hindi is अरब (arab), अर्बुद (arbud), अब्ज (abj). See Billion meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use billion in a sentence?
- However, despite the prospect of HS2 being curtailed and the revelation that the programme is late and billions over budget, for now, at least, work on the scheme appears to be business as usual
- What part of speech is billion?
- Billion is a numeral.
- How do you pronounce billion?
- Billion is pronounced /ˈbɪljən/.
Words near billion in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: billion (page history and authors); billion (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-billion.ogg.
Cite this entry: “billion.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/billion. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.