billion
Americannoun
plural
billions,plural
billion-
a cardinal number represented in the U.S. by 1 followed by 9 zeros, and in Great Britain by 1 followed by 12 zeros.
-
a very large number.
I've told you so billions of times.
adjective
noun
-
one thousand million: it is written as 1 000 000 000 or 10 9
-
(formerly, in Britain) one million million: it is written as 1 000 000 000 000 or 10 12
-
(often plural) any exceptionally large number
determiner
Other Word Forms
- billionth adjective
Etymology
Origin of billion
1680–90; < French, equivalent to b ( i )- bi- 1 + -illion, as in million
Compare meaning
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
However, Target plans to spend around $5 billion this year, or around $1 billion more than last year, to improve its stores and invest in technology.
From MarketWatch
This means the Galilean moons may have inherited organic material from two sources: the wider solar nebula and local chemical activity within Jupiter's own disk billions of years ago.
From Science Daily
"Advertising is a legitimate business model, and the Internet runs on billions of dollars of advertising," Pahwa says.
From BBC
He says it's down to funding - to get a product from animal studies to human trials and to a fully licensed medicine takes years and billions of dollars.
From BBC
Venezuela was once a major crude supplier to the United States, and has the world's largest proven reserves with more than 303 billion barrels, according to global oil cartel OPEC.
From Barron's
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
