English for Students

Billion

How many is a Billion?


If you are American, it is undoubtedly 1,000,000,000. This amount is known to traditionally minded British people as a thousand million and by some more adventurous ones as a milliard, though this word has not made as much headway in English as in some other European languages. A trillion is then 1,000,000,000,000, and so on.


If you are British, on the other hand, a billion may be 1,000,000,000,000 (a million million) following the older convention.


If you are neither British nor American, you can take your pick! Both systems were invented by the French but are called British and American for convenience.


Once the business world and the financial press found themselves discussing thousand millions so much, the American' system simply became more convenient, despite a certain lack of logical tidiness. A British trillion is the third power of a million while the American one is the fourth power of a thousand and the American system continues out of sync with the arithmetic. It also makes the profits sound bigger! The American system is now standard use in British government publications and is becoming the norm in many other languages.


10¹² : trillion - American
10¹² : billion - British

10¹⁵ : quadrillion - American
10¹⁵ : thousand billion - British

10¹⁸ : quintillion - American
10¹⁸ : trillion - British

10²¹ : sextillion - American
10²¹ : thousand trillion - British

10²⁴ : septillion - American
10²⁴ : quadrillion - British

10²⁷ : octillion - American
10²⁷ : thousand quadrillion - British

10³⁰ : nonillion - American
10³⁰ : quintillion - British

10³³ : decillion - American
10³³ : thousand quintillion - British


In the British system, it would also possible to use billiard for thousand billion, trilliard for thousand trillion, etc., but this has not so far caught on.


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