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
Sudarsan Raghavan, New Yorker, 12 May 2026
After elbowing its way into the fight for TV’s billions of advertising dollars, Amazon now wants to battle one of the most dire threats to commercials.
—Brian Steinberg, Variety, 11 May 2026
Companies have invested hundreds of billions of dollars in AI.
—Katy George, Time, 11 May 2026
However, every day the Treasury is still forking out billions of dollars to manage existing service payments to lenders.
—Eleanor Pringle, Fortune, 11 May 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 18 May. 2026.
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