googolplex

Numeral

googolplex (plural googolplexes)

1. The number 10^(10¹⁰⁰) or 10^( text )googol, ten to the power of a googol.
   • The name "googol" was invented by a child (Dr. Kasner's nine-year-old nephew) who was asked to think up a name for a very big number, namely, 1 with a hundred zeros after it. He was very certain that this number was not infinite, and therefore equally certain that it had to have a name. At the same...1940, Edward Kasner, James [Roy] Newman, “New Names for Old”, in Mathematics and the Imagination, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →OCLC, page 23
   • Consider that we can start with one googolplex and count: two googolplexes, three googolplexes and so on up to a googolplex googolplexes and beyond—and still not have reached infinity.1952, John Wood Campbell Jr., editor, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, →OCLC, page 164
2. (figuratively) A countable number.
   • Inflationary theory suggests that the entirety of space is vastly larger. Quantum theory suggests that there are many different copies of space of the same basic kind as ours (same laws of physics). String theory further suggests that there may be many different kinds of space. This whole...2010, Don N[elson] Page, “Our Place in the Vast Universe”, in Melville Y. Stewart, editor, Science and Religion in Dialogue, volume I, Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell, →ISBN, page 371
   • In some unimaginable future, the universe will stretch so thin that the light from one galaxy would be unable to reach any other galaxy. Eventually, all the stars would burn out, and the universe would consist of the dead cinders of stars, black holes, and uncountable googolplexes of cubic...2014, John [Herbert] Varley, Dark Lightning, New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN
3. (US, nonstandard, rare) An infinitesimally small portion of land, defined for legal purposes.
   • To a mathematician, a googolplex is the figure 1 followed by a googol of zeroes (a googol being the figure 1 followed by a mere 100 zeroes). To a real-estate man, it's one infinitesimal parcel of a plot of land.1962, Newsweek: The International Newsmagazine, volume 60, New York, N.Y.: Newsweek LLC, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 54
   • Competition among bidders eventually resulted in the discovery of the "Googolplex," a quantity supposedly as near to nothing as possible—one over one with countless zeros [as the size of the portion of land the bidder would accept as security for a tax lien]. This, however, was not the limit of...1976, Ralph E. Boyer, Florida Real Estate Transactions, New York, N.Y.: Matthew Bender & Co., →OCLC, pages 930–931