Billion

How to spell billion

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce billion

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does billion mean?

1. nounThe number equal to a thousand million (1,000,000,000).

Billion in a sentence

• The company reported sales of over one billion pounds last year.

• The new bridge is expected to cost nearly a billion dollars to complete.

Where does billion come from?

Language of origin: French

Billion was coined in French in the late 1400s by combining the prefix bi-, meaning 'two', with the ending of million; the idea was a 'million of the second power', that is a million millions (1,000,000,000,000). English borrowed the word in the 1600s and long kept that older long-scale meaning, while French and later the United States settled on the short-scale value of a thousand millions (1,000,000,000). Britain officially adopted the American value in the 1970s, so today billion means 10 to the ninth power across all three dialects. The spelling preserves its sibling million, which is why the doubled l survives and why writers should remember the single b at the front rather than reaching for an extra letter.

How the word is built

• bi- (two)
• -illion (modelled on million)