billion
noun
Did you know?
How much is a billion? It might depend on whom you ask. Billion was borrowed from French in the late 1600s to indicate the number one million raised to the power of two, or a million million—a number represented by a 1 followed by 12 zeros. However, the French later changed their naming conventions so that a billion became a thousand million (a 1 followed by 9 zeros) and a trillion became a thousand thousand million (or a million million, the old billion). The French have since returned to the older system, but it was this new system that was adopted by American English speakers in the 1800s. In Britain, the newer system has seen increasing use since the 1950s, but the older sense is still sometimes used there as well.
Examples of billion in a Sentence
Peter Elkind, ProPublica, 27 Aug. 2025
Buying Russian oil saved India billions of dollars on import costs, keeping domestic fuel prices relatively stable.
—Afp, Fortune, 27 Aug. 2025
With billions flowing into the industry and driving up valuations, there couldn’t possibly be any stocks in the AI space that still look cheap, right?
—David Trainer, Forbes.com, 26 Aug. 2025
At least four Korean conglomerates have announced deals and investment plans worth tens of billions of dollars, such as plans by the country’s top airliner Korean Air to spend $50 billion on aircraft and engine orders from Boeing and others.
—Gawon Bae, CNN Money, 26 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for billion
Cite this Entry
“Billion.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/billion. Accessed 4 Sep. 2025.
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