trillion
/ˈtrɪljən
/cardinal number (plural trillions or (with numeral or quantifying word) same)
1A million million (1,000,000,000,000 or 1012).Scientists tell us that just after the ‘big bang’ the temperature was 100 million trillion trillion degrees....
- There are now more than 200 million vehicles traveling 5 trillion miles per year in the United States alone.
- Estimates for the total cost of reunification range from hundreds of billion to a few trillion dollars.
1.1 (trillions) informal A very large number or amount: the yammering of trillions of voices...
- All this ridiculous wealth: trillions and zillions of it in less than a cubic mile of the City.
- The amount is a joke compared to the trillions lost by investors and the billions in fees that the brokerages earned.
- You can't get a hundred per cent guarantees and you can't spend trillions of dollars trying to guard a single Qantas office.
1.2British dated A million million million (1,000,000,000,000,000,000 or 1018).Furthermore, the British trillion is a million times of its American counterpart!...
- A British trillion used to be one million American trillions, but they are mostly the same now.
Derivatives
trillionth
- Once again, for the millionth and trillionth time (oh, trust me, I know), I am asking my lovely readers to become lovelier reviewers.
- Neko called Ruy's cell phone for the trillionth time and still nobody picked up.
Origin
Late 17th century: from French, from million, by substitution of the prefix tri- 'three' for the initial letters.