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
Ethan Karp, Forbes.com, 10 June 2025
Colombia’s army is the largest and most professional in Latin America, the recipient of billions dollars in aid from the United States.
—Kate Linthicum, Los Angeles Times, 9 June 2025
And the President’s feckless tech bros can arbitrarily withhold billions in federal support for everything from cancer research to hurricane tracking.
—Ron Cunningham, The Orlando Sentinel, 8 June 2025
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has also enacted cost-cutting measures projected to save taxpayers billions over the next decade through procurement reforms and more efficient contracting.
—Christopher Anderson, Baltimore Sun, 7 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for billion
Cite this Entry
“Billion.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/billion. Accessed 13 Jun. 2025.
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