quintillion

quin·til·lion | \ kwin-ˈtil-yən

How to pronounce quintillion (audio)

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Definition of quintillion

US : a number equal to 1 followed by 18 zeros — see Table of Numbers also, British : a number equal to 1 followed by 30 zeros — see Table of Numbers

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Examples of quintillion in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Mathematicians have tested quintillions of examples (that’s 18 zeros) without finding a single exception to Collatz’s prediction. — Quanta Magazine, "Mathematician Proves Huge Result on ‘Dangerous’ Problem," 11 Dec. 2019 The facilities paused normal operations and delayed other research to allow the global telescope to come alive in search of radio waves from a ring of light encircling the shadow of a black hole more than 300 quintillion miles away. — Adam Glanzman, Smithsonian, "Meet the Global Team That Captured the First Image of a Black Hole," 19 Nov. 2019 The analyst testified the chances of the blood not being Prothro’s were astronomical, one in several quintillion. — Annie Sciacca, The Mercury News, "East Bay man settles double-murder charges, bloody dreadlocks sealed the case," 9 Sep. 2019 More than a million recognized insect species and some 10 quintillion (that’s the number 1 followed by 18 zeros) bugs buzz, hiss, and fly around the planet. — Jani Actman, National Geographic, "Bug smuggling is big business," 5 Sep. 2019 Although the classic 3x3x3 cube has a mind-boggling number of possible configurations (more than 43 quintillion), solving it never requires more than 20 moves; most configurations require just 18. — The Economist, "Speedcubers are solving Rubik’s Cubes at ever-faster speeds," 11 July 2019 The object is estimated to weigh at least 2.18 quintillion kilograms (10 to the 18th power), and extend to depths of more than 300 kilometers. — Martin Finucane, BostonGlobe.com, "What is that mysterious mass under the huge crater on the dark side of the moon?," 13 June 2019 The machine was said to be capable of generating almost 159 quintillion permutations. — New York Times, "Overlooked No More: Alan Turing, Condemned Code Breaker and Computer Visionary," 5 June 2019 But the big target in supercomputer construction right now is building the first exascale computer, capable of a quintillion calculations per second. — Avery Thompson, Popular Mechanics, "The U.S. Will Get the World's First Exascale Computer in 2021," 20 Mar. 2019

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

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Last Updated

24 Dec 2019

Cite this Entry

“Quintillion.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quintillion. Accessed 17 Feb. 2020.

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