Meaning of billion in English:

cardinal numberbillions, billion

• 1The number equivalent to the product of a thousand and a million; 1,000,000,000 or 10⁹

  ‘a world population of nearly 5 billion’

  ‘half a billion dollars’

  More example sentences

  • ‘They export more than three and a half billion dollars worth of liquefied natural gas a year.’
  • ‘Measurements of infrared light reveal that the black hole has a mass equivalent to three billion suns.’
  • ‘In this case four big donors get big contracts of between half a billion and two billion dollars.’
  • ‘War with Iraq will cost anything from fifty to a hundred billion dollars or more.’
  • ‘Road accidents are estimated to cost the equivalent of seven billion pounds per year.’
  • ‘That said this movie is sure to make at least a quarter billion in US dollars by year's end.’
  • ‘Also one of the biggest gambling days of the year with two billion dollars, we know of, bet on the game.’
  • ‘Over the next nine months, we are committed to delivering on a billion dollar assets sale.’
  • ‘He proposed a budget increase of twelve billion dollars over the next five years.’
  • ‘All of this amounts to eight billion dollars in lost revenue for the federal government.’
  • ‘This was possibly the best business deal in history, as he has made a few billion dollars from it.’
  • ‘There is so much talk about the billion of dollars of reconstruction money.’
  • ‘Right now, more than half a billion of the world's children are living on less than 55p a day.’
  • ‘Today there are six and half billion of us with bulldozers and chain saws and nuclear power.’
  • ‘Three billion dollars more are going into health, but there are fewer operations.’
  • ‘Gates but he's at the point where an extra billion dollars in his bank account probably makes him physically sick.’
  • ‘The Chinese admiral after whom the US Navy just named a billion dollar warship, for example.’
  • ‘That would have been like that one billion dollars suddenly turning into one trillion.’
  • ‘Disney admits that Pooh brings in a whopping one billion dollars a year.’
  • ‘He may have remained low key, but his billion dollar construction business has not.’

  Synonyms

  multitude, a great number, a great quantity, a large number, a large quantity, a lot, scores, quantities, mass, crowd, throng, host, droves, horde, army, legion, sea, swarm

  1. 1.1billionsinformal A very large number or amount of something.
     ‘our immune systems are killing billions of germs right now’
     More example sentences

     • ‘Massive arcologies looming in the distance, like small mountains covered in billions of tiny lights.’
     • ‘Only one surviving bacterium or virus could multiply into billions in no time.’
     • ‘A vegetarian diet would drastically reduce the amount of crop land needed to feed billions.’
     • ‘Ares Vallis is one of several big outflow channels on Mars in this region that formed billions of years ago.’
     • ‘It will be in billions and billions of dollars or pounds.’
     Synonyms

     a lot, a great number, a large number, a great quantity, a large quantity, host, horde, mass, mountain, droves, swarm, army, legion, sea, abundance, profusion
  2. 1.2A billion pounds or dollars.
     ‘the problem persists despite the billions spent on it’
     More example sentences

     • ‘Throughout that month, the Bank of England spent billions ensuring the pound stayed within its ERM band.’
     • ‘It would be the best two and a half billion ever spent for the legacy an Olympics would give to British sport.’
     • ‘About half a billion in tax and lottery money has been poured into British sport over the past four years.’
     • ‘That leaves homeowners to cover what could amount to billions in repair costs over the next years.’
     • ‘If they were applied throughout the UK public sector, he adds, the savings would amount to billions.’
     • ‘Even divvying up Bill Gates' billions would amount to only a couple of hundred dollars each.’
     • ‘Heaping billions on the rich while ensuring that one out of six American kids doesn't get a penny is dead wrong.’
     • ‘Despite all of the billions slathered on the program, the aircraft's design may be fatally flawed.’
     • ‘We can expect Corporate welfare amounting to tens of billions in the next three years, as with the past term.’
     • ‘That's a lot of money, but if this turns out to be multiple billions of revenue, you'd get that back in a hurry.’
     • ‘The US and Russia spent billions on a dozen or so robotic craft meant to land on the planet and radio back their findings.’
     • ‘Industry watchers reckon that the total amount of money involved could be in the billions.’
     • ‘Meanwhile, Ryanair is due to take delivery of dozens of new aircraft at a cost of billions.’
     • ‘The company still faces a dozen cases that could cost it billions more to resolve.’
     • ‘An example would be an investment house with assets in the billions, but with only a few dozen staff.’
  3. 1.3British dated A million million (1,000,000,000,000 or 10¹²).
     More example sentences

     • ‘1,000,000,000,000: Trillion. An old British tradition calls this a Billion’
     • ‘A conventional British billion is a thousand times bigger than an American billion.’
     • ‘The 'old' billion was 1000,000,000,000; this is now the trillion.’
     • ‘I still maintain the 'proper' billion ... but then I still write: 'connexion'!’
     • ‘To the British, including the Empire and the Commonwealth, billion has long meant a million millions (1,000,000,000,000, or 10 to the twelfth), what Americans call a trillion.’