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See also: Trillion

English

**English numbers ^(edit)**
← 1,000,000 (10⁶)	^{[a], [b], [c]} ← 1,000,000,000 (10⁹)	10¹²	10¹⁵ → ^{[a], [b]}	10¹⁸ → ^{[a], [b]}
Cardinal: trillion, billion Ordinal: trillionth, billionth Multiplier: trillionfold, billionfold Metric collective prefix: tera- Metric fractional prefix: pico-

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *tréyes

Proto-Indo-European *tri-

Proto-Italic *tri-

Latin tri-der.

Proto-Indo-European *tréyes

Proto-Hellenic *tréyes

Ancient Greek τρεῖς (treîs)

Proto-Indo-European *tri-

Proto-Indo-European *-s

Proto-Indo-European *trís

Proto-Hellenic *trís

Ancient Greek τρῐ́ς (trĭ́s)

Ancient Greek τρι- (tri-)der.

French tri-

Proto-Indo-European *sem-

Proto-Indo-European *sm̥-

Proto-Indo-European *-is

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-ih₂

Proto-Indo-European *smih₂

Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰes-

Proto-Indo-European *-lom

Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰéslom

▲

Proto-Indo-European *-ih₂

Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰéslih₂

Proto-Indo-European *smih₂ǵʰéslih₂

Proto-Italic *smīɣeslī

Latin mīlle

Italian mille

Proto-Indo-European *-ōder.

Proto-Indo-European *-Hōder.?

Latin -ōnem

Italian -one

Italian milionebor.

Old French million

Middle French million

French millionbf.

French -illion

French trillionbor.

English trillion

Borrowed from French trillion, from French tri- (“three”) + -illion, equivalent to tri- +‎ -illion.

The noun was coined by American basketball player Harvey Pollack, because of the way the numbers read across a basketball box score.

Pronunciation

enPR: trĭl'yən, IPA^(key): /ˈtɹɪljən/
Audio (US): (file)
Audio (Australia): (file)
Rhymes: -ɪljən
(Australia) IPA^(key): /ˈtɹɪ(l)jən/ (colloquial)

Numeral

trillion (plural trillions)

Either of two large amounts:
2. (US, modern UK, Australia, short scale) A million (times a) million: 1 followed by twelve zeros, 10¹².
  Synonym: billion (long scale)
  - 2012, BioWare, Mass Effect 3: From Ashes (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, PC, scene: Normandy SR-2:
    Javik: Stand in the ashes of a trillion dead souls and ask the ghosts if honor matters. Their silence is your answer.
  - 2024 January 3, Hanna Ziady, Tami Luhby, “US national debt hits record $34 trillion”, in CNN‎^[1], Atlanta, Ga.: Warner Bros. Discovery, archived from the original on 27 March 2024:
    Data published by the Treasury Department showed that “total public debt outstanding” rose to $34.001 trillion on December 29.
  - 2025 March 7, Kayla Tausche, “Dismantling of Education Department puts future of trillions of dollars in student loans in question”, in CNN‎^[2], Atlanta, Ga.: Warner Bros. Discovery, archived from the original on 15 April 2025:
    As President Donald Trump prepares to order the dismantling of the Department of Education, the financial arm of the agency – which makes loans directly to borrowers and manages trillions of dollars in student debt – faces an uncertain future, with steep staff cuts and lack of communication exacerbating the uncertainty, according to interviews with more than a dozen current and former department employees.
4. (dated UK, Australia, long scale) A million (times a) million (times a) million: 1 followed by eighteen zeros, 10¹⁸.
  Synonym: quintillion
(colloquial, hyperbolic) An unspecified very large number.
Near-synonyms: gazillion; see also Thesaurus:zillion

There were trillions of people at the concert.

abbreviations

Coordinate terms

Derived terms

Descendants

→ Welsh: triliwn

Translations

a million million, 10¹² — see also billion

Afrikaans: biljoen (af)
Arabic: بِلْيُون m (bilyūn), تِرِيلِيُون m (tirīliyūn)
Armenian: տրիլիոն (hy) (trilion), երկիլիոն (hy) (erkilion)
Belarusian: трыльён m (trylʹjón)
Bulgarian: трилио́н m (trilión)
Burmese: ထရီလီယံ (hta.riliyam)
Catalan: bilió (ca)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 萬億 / 万亿 (zh) (wànyì), 兆 (zh) (zhào)
Czech: bilión (cs) m
Dutch: biljoen (nl) n
Esperanto: biliono, duiliono (eo)
Estonian: biljon
Faroese: billión f
Finnish: biljoona (fi)
French: billion (fr) m, mille milliards (fr) m pl
Georgian: ტრილიონი (ṭrilioni)
German: Billion (de) f
Greek: τρισεκατομμύριο (el) n (trisekatommýrio)
Greenlandic: billioni
Hebrew: please add this translation if you can
Hindi: महापद्म m (mahāpadma)
Hungarian: billió (hu)
Indonesian: triliun (id), biliun (id)
Italian: bilione (it) f
Japanese: 兆 (ja) (chō)
Javanese: kirna
Khmer: ពាន់ពាន់លាន (pŏənpŏənliən), លានលាន (liən liən)
Korean: 조(兆) (ko) (jo), 만억(萬億) (ko) (maneok)
Lithuanian: trilijonas (lt)
Malay: trilion (ms)
Maltese: biljun
Manchu: ᠰᠠᠵᠠ (saja)
Navajo: chiyóón
Persian: تریلیون (fa) (terilyon)
Polish: bilion (pl) m inan
Portuguese: bilião (pt) m (Angola, Portugal), trilhão (pt) m (Brazil)
Romanian: bilion (ro) n
Russian: триллио́н (ru) m (trillión)
Sanskrit: महापद्म (sa) (mahāpadma)
Serbo-Croatian: please add this translation if you can
Slovak: bilión (sk) m
Spanish: billón (es) m (long-scale), trillón (es) m (short-scale, U.S.)
Swahili: trilioni
Swedish: biljon (sv) c
Tagalog: trilyon
Tatar: триллион (tt) (trilliyon)
Turkish: trilyon (tr)
Ukrainian: трильйо́н (uk) m (trylʹjón)
Vietnamese: nghìn tỉ, ngàn tỉ
Welsh: triliwn (cy)
Yiddish: ביליאָן m (bilyon)

a million million million, 10¹⁸ — see also quintillion

Arabic: تِرِيلِْيُون m (tirīliyūn)
Armenian: եռիլիոն (hy) (eṙilion)
Catalan: trilió (ca)
Czech: trilión (cs) m
Dutch: triljoen (nl) n
Esperanto: triiliono
Estonian: triljon
Faroese: trillión f
Finnish: triljoona (fi)
French: trillion (fr) m
German: Trillion (de) f
Italian: trilione (it) f
Maltese: triljun
Manchu: ᡨᠠᠩᡤᡡ
ᠵᡳᡵᡠᠨ (tanggū jirun)
Māori: tiriona
Polish: trylion (pl) m inan
Portuguese: trilião (pt) m (Angola, Portugal), quintilhão (pt) m (Brazil)
Romanian: trilion (ro) n
Russian: квинтиллио́н (ru) m (kvintillión)
Sinhalese: ත්‍රිලියනය (triliyanaya)
Slovak: trilión m
Spanish: trillón (es) m (long-scale)
Swedish: triljon (sv) c
Turkish: kentilyon (tr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Serbo-Croatian: ^{(please verify)} bilion m

Noun

trillion (plural trillions)

(basketball, slang) A statistic formed by a player playing some number of minutes, but recording no stats.

French

**French numbers ^(edit)**
^{[a], [b]} ← 10¹²	^{[a], [b]} ← 10¹⁵	10¹⁸	10²¹ → ^{[a], [b]}	10²⁴ →
Cardinal: un trillion, un milliard de milliards Ordinal: trillionième, milliardième de milliardième
French Wikipedia article on 10¹⁸

Etymology

From tri- (“three”) +‎ -illion, from million; i.e. a million million million.

Coined by Jehan Adam in 1475 as trimillion. Rendered as tryllion by Nicolas Chuquet in 1484, in his article “Triparty en la science des nombres”.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /tʁi.ljɔ̃/
Audio (France (Toulouse)): (file)
Audio (France (Vosges)): (file)

Numeral

trillion m (plural trillions)

quintillion (10¹⁸)
(dated) trillion (10¹²)

Related terms

billion, coined at same time

Descendants

→ Catalan: trilió

Middle French

Noun

trillion m (plural trillions)

trillion, 10¹⁸
- 1520, Étienne de La Roche, L'arismethique novellement composee, page 6:
  ung trillion vault mille milliers de billions
  a trillion is equivalent to a thousand thousands of billions

Tatar

Numeral

trillion (Cyrillic spelling триллион)

trillion (10¹²)

Declension

Declension of **trillion**
nominative	trillion
genitive	trillionnıñ
dative	trillionga
accusative	trillionnı
locative	trillionda
ablative	trilliondan

Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=trillion&oldid=94575363"

GeezerVison

English

Etymology

Pronunciation

Numeral

Coordinate terms

Derived terms

Descendants

Translations

See also

Noun

French

Etymology

Pronunciation

Numeral

Related terms

Descendants

Further reading

Middle French

Noun

Tatar

Numeral

Declension