In British English, a quadrillion used to mean a thousand raised to the power of eight 10 24 , and is now understood to be a thousand raised to the power of five 10 A quintillion , in British English, used to mean a million raised to the power of five 10 30 , and is now most commonly held to be a thousand raised to the power of six 10 Even higher are sextillion , septillion , octillion , nonillion , and decillion , some of which are not common enough to be included in OxfordDictionaries.
Other terms follow the same linguistic pattern ending with -illion but do not refer to precise numbers. These include jillion , zillion, squillion , gazillion , kazillion , bajillion , and bazillion. All of these words are used informally to refer to an extremely or indefinitely large number. Billiard and Milliard are old words for thousand million which did not please the American thousand millionaires. Rather than calling themselves billionaires they should be more accurately described as thillionaires where thillion is a thousand million.
Any thoughts? In all of Europe they always and still use the correct and true system of the Milliarde which we in the United States see as a Billion. Our Trillion is their Billion. The numbering system for millions is rather confusing. If a million to the power 2 is a tri-million then a bike with 2 wheels must be a tricycle!
We could then have thoubillion, trillion, thoutrillion, quadillion, etc. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account.
Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Common Mistakes in Business English. Skip to content. Home About Contact. This has always been the case in US English. Share this: Facebook LinkedIn. Like this: Like Loading November 28, at am. Good way of explaining, and good piece of writing to obtain data regarding my presentation focus, which i am going to convey in academy.
April 5, at am. Max Wurr, Stanmore, England To Americans and the French, a billion means a thousand millions 1,,,, or 10 to the ninth, what some British call a milliard, a term that seems never to have been widely accepted. To the British, including the Empire and the Commonwealth, billion has long meant a million millions 1,,,,, or 10 to the twelfth , what Americans call a trillion. It was to avoid this ambiguity that scientists, technical writers, and others to whom a few zeros more or less might make a difference, came to avoid the words altogether and refer to a thousand millions or a million millions when the use of numerals was not appropriate.
Gradually, however, the American version began to predominate. Fowler merely noted the difference in Modern English Usage in , but the second edition lamented: It is a pity we [the British] do not conform. The third observes that since the American usage has been increasing in Britain in technical writing and journalism but that the older sense is still common. In the past decade, the British government has been using the terms in the American sense in official publications. The same ambiguity exists as to trillion to Americans, a thousand thousand millions, or 10 to the 12th; to the British, a million million millions, or 10 to the 18th and quadrillion to Americans, a thousand thousand thousand millions, or 10 to the 15th; to British, a million million million millions, or 10 to the 24th.
This system, known in French as the "long scale", is currently used in most countries where English is not the primary language. In the late 17th century a change was made in the way of writing large numbers. Numbers had been separated into groups of six digits, but at this time the modern grouping of three digits came into use. As a result, a minority of Italian and French scientists began using the word "billion" to mean 10 to the power of 9 one thousand million, or 1 , and correspondingly redefined trillion etc.
This is known in French as the "short scale" and is now officially used by all English-speaking countries, as well as Brazil, Puerto Rico, Russia, Turkey and Greece. Incidentally, the American billion is 1,,,, rather than ,, John Rymell, Stepney, England Curiously, about four years ago, I wrote the Guardian to ask which "billion" they used: the US million or the French million million.
The old "British billion" was the French. It was a bit difficult to understand Guardian articles when large numbers are used if you do not know which billion is referenced. The US billion has become universally used in English-speaking countries. In , British government statistics adopted the US billion. The UK press conforms. The French have shifted about between meanings but finally confirmed the "French" billion in Most non-English speaking nations follow the French with the notable exceptions of Russia and Brazil.
Because the public rarely have any experience with such large numbers, the use of the French billion persists in Britain, especially among the elderly and the classical. In contrast, a US Senator, Everett Dirkson, reportedly once remarked, "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money".
George Bush was allegedly informed during the Iraq war that three Brazilian soldiers had been killed. Remind me again - just how many is a Brazilian? It is indeed the term that was lost in the UK when we took over the US system. If I'm right, the adoption of the US billion's been a bit longer coming than anyone here seems to recognise. It is still widely used today. When I first picked up the English language, I was often confused.
One billion 1,,, is equivalent to 10 Chinese billion. They don't really ever use billion Raphael, Provence, France The wholesale adoption of everything American is depressing, I lament the loss of adverbs, pronunciation of two-thousand-and-eight.
Billion comes from Bi-Million, the second power of a million. Using the 3rd power of one-thousand is meaningless. I must be a dinosaur that were taught to speak good eh? Andrew Frazer, Cheltenham England A billion in mathematics is one million to the power 2, or one million times one million. Bi meaning 2, as in bicycle, bi-plane or even base-2 number binary numerical system etc.. A trillion is one million to the power 3, tricycle, triangle, triang - hornby trainset?
Anyhow, it makes 'sense', which is something Americans lack so let's not follow them more than we need to. Jemmy Hanson, Ashton-In-Makerfield, England I think, in the interest of good sense and logic, that we should return to the old British billion or one million to the power of two.
The Americans can follow our lead for a change! Tim Holloway, Ludlow When I was studying my accountancy, a British woman I worked with told how me England regarded the number 1,,,, as one billion. To the best of her knowledge, she believed the Americans changed this number "billion" to 1,,, so individual Americans could attain "Billionaire Status.
I did a calculation, converting Pounds Sterling to seconds. That many seconds goes back to bc! That was the year that Seth was born and he was Noah's eldest son. Michael Smart, Scunthorpe I am surprised that the French invented the "incorrect" billion, given that they had "milliard" in their language.
Well done the Swedes for sticking to commonsense. Ivan Martin, Northern Ireland The British Billion was 1,,,, until circa when American astronomers decided to de-value it to ,,, as they said it was easier to calculate light years. Then someone adopted 1,,, as the new billion. This is all nonsense, what about all the books that have been written using the original British billion?
Who is going to understand them? It seems to me that if a name has been allotted to a collection of numbers, then that is how it should stand. Why should we follow the Americans: They don't speak English anyway, or do the same Maths! Peter Thomas, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, UK 1,,, should now be the universal standard used by all countries that use the iso metric system as this is all correctly based on units of 10 to the power of 3. I have adopted the German number scheme and I must confess I like it.
It just seems more standardized. And on that note: I wish the US would finally accept the SI system and just remove itself from the list of only three nations not using the international standard. It is just ridiculous. The only thing that I am not so fond of here is using a decimal point for the thousands marker and a comma for the decimal marker. A bit confusing there
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