Learn English – Billion and other large numbers

american-englishbritish-englishnumbers

Traditionally a billion in American English means 109 (1,000,000,000, a thousand million) while in British English it means 1012 (a million million) with milliard meaning 109.

Is this still the case or has the world aligned itself to the American way? I'm not a native English speaker and I don't remember hearing or seeing the word milliard recently.

In any case what are the common names of the powers of 10?

Best Answer

Is this still the case or has the world aligned itself to the American way?

At least Britain seems to have largely aligned itself that way. Quoting Wikipedia, which has an excellent entry on the topic (Long and short scales):

[In the UK,] "billion" has meant 109 in most sectors of official published writing for many years now. The UK government, the BBC, and most other broadcast or published mass media, have used the short scale in all contexts since the mid-1970s.

Before the widespread use of "billion" for 109, UK usage generally referred to thousand million rather than milliard. The long scale term "milliard", for 109, is obsolete in British English, though its derivative, "yard", is still used as slang in the London money, foreign exchange and bond markets.

I wouldn't say that the world has done so, however, as the list of long-scale countries is rather long. For example, in Finnish the only word we use for 109 is miljardi, while 1012 is biljoona.

But you could well say that about the English-speaking world which now almost universally uses "billion" for 109, according to that Wikipedia article.

Related Topic