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
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 11 Apr. 2026
Congress allocated money for it, but billions of dollars were delayed due to the shutdown.
—CBS News, 11 Apr. 2026
The European Space Agency telescope is designed to make a 3D map of the universe by looking at billions of galaxies up to 10 billion light years away across one third of the sky.
—Richard Tribou, The Orlando Sentinel, 11 Apr. 2026
It's been an eventful first month on the job for Pat Lyons, the new athletic director at the University of Rhode Island, who takes the reins in Kingston during a volatile time in college sports, with the billions of dollars available in media rights turning the NCAA into a conduit for big business.
—Kathleen Hill, The Providence Journal, 11 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for billion
Cite this Entry
“Billion.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/billion. Accessed 12 Apr. 2026.
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