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
Anastasia Chernikova, Forbes, 6 Dec. 2024
This cosmic merger is taking place roughly 570 million light-years away from Earth, and has been unfolding over billions of years.
—Alan Taylor, The Atlantic, 6 Dec. 2024
Despite fluctuations in consumer demand, animal agriculture receives billions of dollars of public support to ensure its survival in the face of changing consumption habits.
—Crystal Heath and Gene Baur, TIME, 6 Dec. 2024
That is, of course, artificial intelligence and, specifically, the idea that one day soon big companies across all kinds of industries will be spending hundreds of billions of dollars on AI products.
—Alex Heath, The Verge, 5 Dec. 2024
See all Example Sentences for billion 
Dictionary Entries Near billion
Cite this Entry
“Billion.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/billion. Accessed 17 Dec. 2024.
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