Definitions for billion
ˈbɪl yənbil·lion

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:1.0 / 1 vote

1. billion, one million million, 1000000000000noun

   the number that is represented as a one followed by 12 zeros; in the United Kingdom the usage followed in the United States is frequently seen

2. million, billion, trillion, zillion, jillion, gazillionnoun

   a very large indefinite number (usually hyperbole)

   "there were millions of flies"

3. billion, one thousand million, 1000000000adjective

   the number that is represented as a one followed by 9 zeros

4. billionadjective

   denoting a quantity consisting of one thousand million items or units in the United States

5. billionadjective

   denoting a quantity consisting of one million million items or units in Great Britain

WikipediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Billion

   Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions: 1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or 109 (ten to the ninth power), as defined on the short scale. This is its only current meaning in English. 1,000,000,000,000, i.e. one million million, or 1012 (ten to the twelfth power), as defined on the long scale. This number, which is one thousand times larger than the short scale billion, is now referred to in English as one trillion. However, this number is the historical meaning in English for the word "billion" (with the exception of the United States), a meaning which was still in official use in British English until some time after World War II.American English adopted the short scale definition from the French (it enjoyed usage in France at the time, alongside the long-scale definition). The United Kingdom used the long scale billion until 1974, when the government officially switched to the short scale, but since the 1950s the short scale had already been increasingly used in technical writing and journalism. Other countries use the word billion (or words cognate to it) to denote either the long scale or short scale billion. (For details, see Long and short scales § Current usage.) Milliard, another term for one thousand million, is extremely rare in English, but words similar to it are very common in other European languages. For example, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Georgian, German, Hebrew (Asia), Hungarian, Italian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish (although the expression mil millones — a thousand million — is far more common), Swedish, Tajik, Turkish, Ukrainian and Uzbek — use milliard, or a related word, for the short scale billion, and billion (or a related word) for the long scale billion. Thus for these languages billion is a thousand times larger than the modern English billion.

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. billion

   A billion is a number equivalent to one thousand million (1,000,000,000) in the US and many other countries, or one million million (1,000,000,000,000) in the UK before 1974. It's typically used in the context of finance, population and other quantities to denote a very large amount.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:4.0 / 2 votes

1. Billionnoun

   according to the French and American method of numeration, a thousand millions, or 1,000,000,000; according to the English method, a million millions, or 1,000,000,000,000. See Numeration

Chambers 20th Century DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Billion

   bil′yun, n. a million or thousand thousand of millions (1,000,000,000,000); or, according to the French method of numeration, one thousand millions (1,000,000,000). [L. bi-, twice, and Million.]

Surnames Frequency by Census RecordsRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. BILLION

   According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Billion is ranked #134712 in terms of the most common surnames in America.
   
   The Billion surname appeared 125 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Billion.
   
   81.6% or 102 total occurrences were White.
   8% or 10 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
   7.2% or 9 total occurrences were Black.

Matched Categories

1. • Large Indefinite Quantity

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'billion' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #2140

2. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'billion' in Written Corpus Frequency: #3868

3. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'billion' in Nouns Frequency: #913

How to pronounce billion?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say billion in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of billion in Chaldean Numerology is: 4

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of billion in Pythagorean Numerology is: 1

Examples of billion in a Sentence

1. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull:

   China is Australia's most valuable tourism market. More than a million Chinese visited Australia last year (and) contributed A$8.3 billion to our economy.

2. Monica Viego-Rodriguez:

   I haven't even seen a truck nearby. Polls are still down lines are down, I really have no idea. And it's been slowly coming back around the metro area, but I feel like my area has been forgotten. She said she does n’t know what the future will bring. Right now, we're scared about Puerto Rico's future. This is really, really serious for us, we don't know what's going to happen with us in the future. We don't know if we're going to keep getting some aid some help – it's scary for us. Help from U.S. mainland power companies has been coming in waves for months. But Monica Viego-Rodriguez still hasn't seen a light come on anywhere in Monica Viego-Rodriguez neighborhood since the hurricanes hit last fall. Monica Viego-Rodriguez can only buy perishable foods for Monica Viego-Rodriguez family that they can eat the same day.There is nowhere to store food other than a cooler that she keeps filled with ice on her balcony. More than 470,000 homes were damaged or destroyed, causing an estimated $ 140 billion in damages. As Puerto Rico experiences the longest and most devastating blackout in American history, 1,000 utility trucks and 1,500 workers from 22 electric companies from all over the U.S. are arriving on the island this week to help the existing crews on the job restore power. As crews carve their way through the catastrophic damage, their progress is slow. But they met a major milestone this month when 1 million customers had their power restored, and utility crews say they won't stop until everyone is back on line. Help from U.S. mainland power companies has been coming in waves for months. But some Puerto Rico residents say they still haven't seen a light come on anywhere in their neighborhood since the hurricanes hit last fall. ( REUTERS) There is no set timeframe, we're just here for the long haul.

3. Manpreet Singh.Harmanpreet Singh:

   Today we have made 1.3 billion Indians proud by finishing on the podium.

4. Donald Trump:

   China should not have put new Tariffs on 75 BILLION DOLLARS of United States product( politically motivated !) .

5. Kara Swisher:

   As you said, It's as big as an economy. It's a country, with 3 billion people, they’re not monitoring it correctly. And at the very top, we have someone who is unfireable, unaccountable and really can do whatever he wants and is spectacularly unsuited to the task.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=billion
2. ^ Wikipedia
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion
3. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com
4. ^ Webster Dictionary
   https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/billion
5. ^ Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
   https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37683/37683-h/37683-h.htm#:~:text=billion
6. ^ Surnames Frequency by Census Records
   https://www.census.gov/topics/population/genealogy/data/2010_surnames.html