billion

• POS: Definite Article, Noun
• HYPHEN: bil=lion

CIDE DICTIONARY

billion, n. [F. billion, arbitrarily formed fr. L. bis twice, in imitation of million a million. See Million.].

 According to the French and American method of numeration, a thousand millions, or 1,000,000,000; according to the English method, a million millions, or 1,000,000,000,000. See Numeration.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

billion, n. & adj.
--n. (pl. same or (in sense 3) billions) (in sing. prec. by a or one)
1 a thousand million (1,000,000,000 or 10(9)).
2 (now less often, esp. Brit.) a million million (1,000,000,000,000 or 10(12)).
3 (in pl.) colloq. a very large number (billions of years).
--adj. that amount to a billion.

Derivative

billionth adj. & n.

Etymology

F (as BI-, MILLION)

THESAURUS

billion

a billion, a crore, a lakh, a million, a myriad, a nonillion, a quadrillion, a thousand, a zillion, astronomical number, googol, googolplex, infinitude, infinity, jillion, large number, milliard, trillion, zillion

ROGET THESAURUS

billion

Five

N five, five, cinque, quint, quincux, six, half-a- dozen, half dozen, seven, eight, nine, three times three, dicker, ten, decade, eleven, twelve, dozen, thirteen, long dozen, baker's dozen, quintuplet, twenty, score, twenty-four, four and twenty, two dozen, twenty-five, five and twenty, quarter of a hundred, forty, two score, fifty, half a hundred, sixty, three score, seventy, three score and ten, eighty, four score, ninety, fourscore and ten, sestiad, hundred, centenary, hecatomb, century, hundredweight, cwt, one hundred and forty-four, gross, thousand, chiliad, millennium, thousand years, grand, myriad, ten thousand, ban, man, ten thousand years, banzai, lac, one hundred thousand, plum, million, thousand million, milliard, billion, trillion, five, quinary, quintuple, fifth, senary, sextuple, sixth, seventh, septuple, octuple, eighth, ninefold, ninth, tenfold, decimal, denary, decuple, tenth, eleventh, duodenary, duodenal, twelfth, in one's 'teens, thirteenth, vicesimal, vigesimal, twentieth, twenty-fourth, vicenary, vicennial, centuple, centuplicate, centennial, centenary, centurial, secular, hundredth, thousandth.