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The word millionaire has been used in English to designate a person who is worth a million pounds or dollars, depending on the side of the ocean, since 1786. We borrowed the word straight from the French, whose millions, of course, were in francs. Millionaire eventually no longer sufficed, and English speakers coined billionaire in 1844. Soon afterwards came multimillionaire, followed by multibillionaire in the early 1900s. Once zillion was made up as a humorous word for an indeterminately large number (patterned on million and billion), it was only a matter of time before zillionaire came along as a humorous word for a person of seemingly immeasurable wealth. Zillion and zillionaire aren't used in the most formal of writing, but they have found their way into plenty of serious publications.
Examples of zillionaire in a Sentence
Andy Behrens,
New York Times,
18 Mar. 2026
The platinum blond computer chip zillionaire was no match for 007!
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EW.com,
24 May 2025
The creator of the Hero, a zillionaire tech mogul played by an oily, compelling Walton Goggins, has used his money and copious free time to become a real-life version of his own fictional, authoritarian crime-fighter.
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Michael Phillips,
Chicago Tribune,
6 July 2023
Cite this Entry
“Zillionaire.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/zillionaire. Accessed 4 Jul. 2026.
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