Definition of BILLIONS

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How much is a billion? It might depend who 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 one followed by 12 zeros. However, the French later changed their naming conventions so that a billion became a thousand million (a one followed by nine 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

We could see a billion stars in the sky.

Recent Examples on the Web Federal relief arrives, but state cuts loom The federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed last month included billions in aid for higher education. — Jennifer Smola, Cincinnati.com, "COVID-19 pandemic costing Ohio colleges millions," 26 Apr. 2020 And with billions of stamps sold, that could be a very large number. — Timothy B. Lee, Ars Technica, "Post Office owes $3.5M for using wrong Statue of Liberty on a stamp," 6 July 2018 The missed funding comes as the state Department of Workforce Development reported the state fund that will cover that $25 million and billions more in unemployment payments could be depleted as early as October. — Molly Beck, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Wisconsin lost out on $25M in federal funding because GOP lawmakers waited to pass coronavirus relief bill," 7 May 2020 By 2070, billions could be living in a climate currently found only in a select few places, like Mecca in Saudi Arabia, where the average temperature is 86 F (30 C). — NBC News, "Billions could face temperatures inhospitable to life in the next 50 years, study finds," 6 May 2020 The stakes are immense with the coronavirus sickening more than 3 million people, even as billions hide from the pathogen indoors. — James Paton, Bloomberg.com, "Covid Exit Strategy Depends on Getting Vaccine to Whole World," 5 May 2020 Now, the federal government could have to fork up billions to health insurers who attempt to collect the money they're owed. — Ashley Shaffer, USA TODAY, "Buckle up, it's time to self-swab," 27 Apr. 2020 Some on the right have tried to link activists working to defeat Donald Trump in 2016 and to derail the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court justice to Soros’s billions. — Jonathan S. Tobin, National Review, "Some Conspiracy Theories Are More Equal Than Others," 24 Apr. 2020 But in the coming months, billions will be able to do so without even downloading an app, as Google and Apple roll out contact tracing in their operating systems. — Amrita Khalid, Quartz, "Governments likely to defer to Big Tech on Covid-19 contact tracing," 18 Apr. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'billion.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.