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
Pete Muntean, CNN Money, 19 Sep. 2025
Yet governors and Democratic majorities of the Legislature have never stopped repeating their talking points about how wonderful the bullet train will be — and never stopped promising that billions in additional new spending will produce far more progress than the billions in previous spending.
—U T Editorial Board, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Sep. 2025
Astronomers have discovered a tiny, ghostly galaxy in a remote corner of the universe, likely a cosmic castaway flung from its original galactic group billions of years ago and left to wander in near-total isolation.
—Sharmila Kuthunur, Space.com, 19 Sep. 2025
The reddish rock formed billions of years ago from sediment on the bottom of a lake in Jezero Crater, which represents what researchers believe is one of the best places to find evidence that Earth's planetary neighbor was ever home to life.
—Doyle Rice, USA Today, 19 Sep. 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 21 Sep. 2025.
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