cardinal numbermillions, million

• 1The number equivalent to the product of a thousand and a thousand; 1,000,000 or 10⁶

  ‘a million people will benefit’

  More example sentences

  • ‘a population of half a million’
  • ‘a cost of more than £20 million’
  • ‘Nearly half a million people could benefit from a new scheme aimed at reducing hospital waiting lists.’
  • ‘Between them they will buy more than a million tickets for thousands of shows.’
  • ‘In this way, it is estimated that some half a million people will be pushed off benefits.’
  • ‘About half a million Dominicans live in New York, making it one of its largest immigrant groups.’
  • ‘The United Nations currently estimates that half a million people have so far been displaced.’
  • ‘When up to half a million people took to the streets, there was no looting.’
  • ‘More than half a million people need to go to the doctor, and a third of these end up in hospital.’
  • ‘Electoral officials in Ohio say they have recorded half a million new voters since March.’
  • ‘In Yorkshire alone, nearly half a million homes are at risk of low demand and abandonment.’
  • ‘Last year the centre attracted a million visitors, half of whom visited the library.’
  • ‘Organisers countered by claiming that at least half a million people joined the demo.’
  • ‘Last year more than half a million homes were left empty for at least a month at a time.’
  • ‘Prehistory spans an almost inconceivably long time, perhaps as much as half a million years.’
  • ‘Nearly half a million metric tonnes of cereal food aid is needed over the next six months.’
  • ‘At its peak the British auxiliary forces consisted of nearly half a million members.’
  • ‘As a result, the album was a relative flop, failing to sell even one million copies.’
  • ‘Despite the lucrative land sales, the village had only three million yuan in its accounts.’
  • ‘Experts say this could rise to six million barrels a day within five years with the right investment and control.’
  • ‘The total figures might have reached ten million by the end of the past century.’
  • ‘One radar sweep covers 6 million cubic miles.’

  1. 1.1millionsThe numbers from a million to a billion.
     ‘The report wrongly gave earnings and revenue numbers in billions rather than millions.’
     More example sentences

     • ‘It also includes money, in the millions and billions.’
     • ‘Before European settlers arrived, gray wolves once roamed all over North America, their population in the millions.’
     • ‘From a pre-contact population in the millions, by 1900 they were reduced to a culturally destroyed remnant of 250,000.’
  2. 1.2millionsSeveral million things or people.
     ‘millions of TV viewers’
     More example sentences

     • ‘It has cost that state multiple millions of dollars.’
     • ‘Although the discrepancy may not look large, it is likely to represent very significant sums of money when multiplied by millions of customers.’
     • ‘Multiply that by millions of digital photographers and you are talking about a lot of digital information.’
     • ‘A lack of aid and an abundance of problems threaten millions in Southern Africa.’
     • ‘Now multiply that by millions of students and other computer users and the problem comes into sharp focus.’
     • ‘Its advantages are formidable: abundant cheap labor, millions of talented engineers, good infrastructure.’
     • ‘Liquid water is the basic requirement for life, and Earth's abundant supply supports millions of organisms.’
     • ‘All the energy built up by the twisting of the plasma is suddenly released, as if millions of atomic bombs exploded in just a few seconds.’
     • ‘Voice is the one application that every business uses, with millions of telephone calls being made every day.’
     • ‘Their violation costs employers multiple millions of dollars and widespread condemnation.’
     • ‘She realized her own experience must be multiplied by millions and wrote a guide to coping with depression on the job.’
     • ‘We had many cases that involved multiple defendants and millions of dollars of counterfeit money.’
     • ‘What parent - Morgan among them - would want their child's every misstep or embarrassment exaggerated and witnessed by millions?’
     • ‘Some in Mexico view the exodus of millions of people as an embarrassment while others as an escape valve for social unrest.’
     • ‘Despite the abundance, there are still millions of people who go without water, or have to battle to get drips for consumption.’
     • ‘New banking providers also have to recognise, he said, that there are still millions of customers who have never used a telephone to talk to their bank.’
     • ‘To provide that level of service we would be talking about spending literally millions of pounds.’
     • ‘Where is the evidence of fossils being millions of years old?’
     • ‘He should give some thought to the millions of viewers disenfranchised by the sell-out.’
     • ‘In most countries, ensuring all children improved access to basic services would require millions - not billions - of dollars.’
     Synonyms

     a lot of money, a fortune, a considerable sum of money, a vast sum of money, millions, billions, a king's ransom, a killing, a windfall, a bonanza
  3. 1.3informal An unspecified but very large number or amount of something.
     More example sentences

     • ‘I've got millions of beer bottles in my cellar’
     • ‘you're one in a million’
     • ‘Influenza, whose genes evolve a million times faster than ours, is a master of adaptability.’
     • ‘Suddenly it's nearly Christmas and I still have a million and one things to do.’
     • ‘I have no idea where she is or what she's doing, and my mind is running at a million miles an hour.’
     • ‘I have a million and one things to do in the house and my motivation is still on extended vacation.’
     • ‘You will see how my anxiety level went from zero to a million over the span of an hour.’
     • ‘I drove a sports car about a week ago and the brakes are about a million times better than that.’
     • ‘He points out that they often find their finished product a million miles away from the original concept.’
     Synonyms

     a large amount, a fair amount, a good deal, a great deal, a deal, a great quantity, quantities, an abundance, a wealth, a profusion, plenty, masses
  4. 1.4A million pounds or dollars.
     ‘the author is set to make millions’
     More example sentences

     • ‘They stand to lose millions in revenue following the discovery of one infected cow in Alberta in May this year.’
     • ‘Didn't they invest a few million into the company a few years ago?’
     • ‘I ran into a group of people who will pay big money - millions - to the person who solves their one problem.’
     • ‘There is no way any of us are going to get her an elite card, not even if we won a million on the lottery.’
  5. 1.5the millionsThe bulk of the population.
     ‘movies for the millions’
     More example sentences

     • ‘The sense that historical fiction had sunk to the condition of adventure stories for boys, and romance for the millions, cast a blight on the genre in the 20th cent.’
     • ‘Every cent you give will go a very long way towards creating a world that is truly for the millions, not the millionaires.’