(~s)
Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
Note: The plural form is '~' after a number, or after a word or expression referring to a number, such as ‘several’ or ‘a few’.
1.
A ~ is a thousand million.
...3 ~ dollars...
This year, almost a ~ birds will be processed in the region.
NUM
2.
If you talk about ~s of people or things, you mean that there is a very large number of them but you do not know or do not want to say exactly how many.
Biological systems have been doing this for ~s of years...
He urged US executives to invest ~s of dollars in his country.
QUANT-PLURAL: QUANT of pl-n
•
You can also use ~s as a pronoun.
He thought that it must be worth ~s.
PRON