BILLION


Meaning of BILLION in English

■ cardinal number ( plural ~s or (with numeral or quantifying word) same)

1》 the number equivalent to the product of a thousand and a million; 1,000,000,000 or 10 9 .

↘ Brit. dated a million million (1,000,000,000,000 or 10 12 ).

2》 ( ~s ) informal a very large number or amount.

Derivatives

~th ordinal number .

Origin

C17: from Fr., from million , by substitution of the prefix bi- 'two' for the initial letters.

Concise Oxford English vocab.      Сжатый оксфордский словарь английского языка.