MILLION


Meaning of MILLION in English

mil ‧ lion /ˈmɪljən/ BrE AmE number , noun ( plural million or millions )

[ Date: 1300-1400 ; Language: French ; Origin: Old Italian milione , from mille 'thousand' , from Latin ; ⇨ ↑ milli- ]

1 . the number 1,000,000:

The book sold more than a million copies.

two/three/four etc million

seven million dollars

£37 million of new investment

millions of pounds/dollars etc

Millions of pounds were lost in Western aid.

2 . an extremely large number of people or things

a million

I’ve got a million ideas.

millions of something

She has millions of friends.

3 . not/never in a million years spoken used to emphasize that something is impossible or very unlikely to happen:

She’ll never believe me. Not in a million years.

4 . look/feel like a million dollars/bucks informal especially American English to look very attractive or feel very happy and healthy

5 . in a million informal

a) the best of all possible people or things:

She’s a wife in a million.

He’s so generous. He’s one in a million.

b) used to show how unlikely something is:

It was a chance in a million that we’d find a fossil.

—millionth adjective :

The park has just received its millionth visitor.

—millionth noun [countable]

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.      Longman - Словарь современного английского языка.