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
Alena Botros, Fortune, 24 Apr. 2024
Failure to renew the taxes, called the Federal Reimbursement Allowance or FRA, would result in a loss of billions in state and federal Medicaid funds.
—Kacen Bayless, Kansas City Star, 23 Apr. 2024
Google collects billions of dollars in revenue from ads that accompany searches on its platform, including ads that accompany links to news articles.
—Andrew Sheeler, Sacramento Bee, 23 Apr. 2024
Atop the list of legal threats is House vs. NCAA, an antitrust case that was recently granted class status and could cost the power conferences billions in backpay and future revenue.
—Jon Wilner, The Mercury News, 22 Apr. 2024
Antitrust lawsuits that could force universities to pay out billions in damages are working their way through the courts.
—Billy Witz, New York Times, 22 Apr. 2024
Companies including Ford and General Motors have invested billions to produce vehicles that retail for less than Tesla cars.
—Khristopher J. Brooks, CBS News, 22 Apr. 2024
That acquisition added billions of dollars in loans to the bank’s balance sheet, boosting its income from interest.
—Nicole Goodkind, CNN, 12 Apr. 2024
The federal lawsuit filed in Detroit on behalf of four UWM borrowers in North Carolina, Florida and Tennessee accused the lender of costing borrowers billions of dollars.
—Catherine Reagor, The Arizona Republic, 11 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'billion.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near billion
Cite this Entry
“Billion.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/billion. Accessed 27 Apr. 2024.
Copy Citation
Share