different between billions vs trillion

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?b?lj?nz/

Noun

billions

1. plural of billion

French

Noun

billions m

1. plural of billion

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: tr?l'y?n, IPA^(key): /?t??lj?n/
• Rhymes: -?lj?n

Etymology 1

From French trillion, from tri- (“three”) +? -illion.

Numeral

trillion (plural trillions)

1. (US, modern Britain, Australia, short scale) A million million: 1 followed by twelve zeros, 10¹².
2. (dated Britain, Australia, long scale) A million million million: 1 followed by eighteen zeros, 10¹⁸.

Synonyms

• (10¹²): a long scale billion
• (10¹⁸): a short scale quintillion

Translations

See also

• (short scale) Previous: billion. Next: quadrillion
• (long scale) Previous: billiard. Next: trilliard
• (SI prefix): tera-

Etymology 2

Coined by Harvey Pollack, because of the way the numbers read across a basketball box score

Noun

trillion (plural trillions)

1. (basketball, slang) A statistic formed by a player playing some number of minutes, but recording no stats.

French

Etymology

From tri- (“three”) +? -illion, from million; i.e. a million million million.

Coined by Jehan Adam in 1475 as trimillion.Rendered as tryllion by Nicolas Chuquet in 1484, in his article “Triparty en la science des nombres”.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t?i.lj??/

Numeral

trillion

1. 10¹⁸; a long scale trillion; a short scale quintillion.

Usage notes

• Previous: billiard, 10¹⁵
• Next: trilliard, 10²¹

Related terms

• billion, coined at same time

Descendants

• ? Catalan: trilió

Further reading

• “trillion” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Middle French

Noun

trillion m (plural trillions)

1. trillion, 10¹⁸
   • 1520, Étienne de La Roche, L'arismethique novellement composee, page 6

     ung trillion vault mille milliers de billions

     a trillion is equivalent to a thousand thousands of billions

Tatar

Numeral

trillion (Cyrillic spelling ????????)

1. trillion (10¹²)

Declension