''Trillion'' is a number with two distinct definitions: *

1,000,000,000,000 This list contains selected positive numbers in increasing order, including counts of things, dimensionless quantities and probabilities. Each number is given a name in the short scale, which is used in English-speaking countries, as well as a ...

, i.e. one million

million One million (1,000,000), or one thousand thousand, is the natural number following 999,999 and preceding 1,000,001. The word is derived from the early Italian ''millione'' (''milione'' in modern Italian), from ''mille'', "thousand", plus the au ...

, or (ten to the twelfth

power Power most often refers to: * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events ** Abusive power Power may a ...

), as defined on the

short scale The long and short scales are two of several naming systems for integer power of 10, powers of ten which use some of the same terms for different magnitudes. For whole numbers smaller than 1,000,000,000 (109), such as one thousand or one m ...

. This is now the meaning in both American and British English. * 1,000,000,000,000,000,000, i.e. (ten to the eighteenth power), as defined on the

long scale The long and short scales are two of several naming systems for integer powers of ten which use some of the same terms for different magnitudes. For whole numbers smaller than 1,000,000,000 (109), such as one thousand or one million, the ...

. This is one million times larger than the short scale trillion. This is the historical meaning in English and the current use in many non-English-speaking countries where ''trillion'' and ''

billion Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions: *1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or (ten to the ninth power), as defined on the short scale. This is its only current meaning in English. * 1,000,000,000,000, i.e ...

'' (ten to the twelfth power) maintain their long scale definitions.

Usage

Originally, the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

used the long scale trillion. However, since 1974, official UK statistics have used the short scale. Since the 1950s, the short scale has been increasingly used in technical writing and journalism, although the long scale definition still has some limited usage.

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...

has always used the short scale definition. Other countries use the word ''trillion'' (or words

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...

to it) to denote either the long scale or short scale trillion. For details, see current usage. During the height of

hyperinflation in Zimbabwe Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe is an ongoing period of currency instability in Zimbabwe that, using Cagan's definition of hyperinflation, began in February 2007. During the height of inflation from 2008 to 2009, it was difficult to measure Zimbab ...

in 2008, people became accustomed to speaking about their daily expenses in terms of trillions. When Italy used the

lira Lira is the name of several currency units. It is the current currency of Turkey and also the local name of the currencies of Lebanon and of Syria. It is also the name of several former currencies, including those of Italy, Malta and Israe ...

as currency, eventually converted at about 2,000 lira to the

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

, it was found that Italians were more comfortable with words for large numbers such as ''trillion'' than British people.

Etymology

The words ''billion'' and ''trillion'', or variations thereof were first used by French mathematicians in the

15th century The 15th century was the century which spans the Julian dates from 1 January 1401 ( MCDI) to 31 December 1500 ( MD). In Europe, the 15th century includes parts of the Late Middle Ages, the Early Renaissance, and the early modern period. M ...

. The word ''trillion'' was first used in the 1680s and comes from the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

word ''trilione''. The word originally meant the third power of one million. As a result, it was mainly used to express the concept of an enormous number, similar to the words ''zillion'' and ''gazillion''. However, it was more commonly used in the US.

References

Large numbers {{Vocab-stub English words

Usage

Etymology

See also

References