Names of large numbers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Throughout this article, exponential or scientific notation is used. 10⁶ could also be written as the number 1 followed by six 0s, 1 000 000; 10⁹ could be written as 1 000 000 000; and so on.

Names of numbers larger than a quadrillion are almost never used, for reasons discussed further below. It is debatable which of them should be considered real working English vocabulary and which are merely trivia, curiosities, or coinages. The following table lists those names of numbers which are found in many English dictionaries and thus have a special claim to being "real words". The "Traditional British" values shown are unused in American English, are becoming obsolete in British English, but are dominant in continental Europe and other non-English areas; see Long and short scales.

Name	USA and Modern British ("short scale")	Traditional British value ("long scale")	Authorities
			AHD4[1]	COD[2]	OED2[3]	OEDnew[4]	RHD2[5]	SOED3[6]	W3[7]
million	106	106	✓	✓	✓		✓	✓	✓
milliard		109	✓		✓
billion	109	1012	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
trillion	1012	1018	✓	✓	✓		✓	✓	✓
quadrillion	1015	1024	✓		✓		✓	✓	✓
quintillion	1018	1030	✓		✓		✓	✓	✓
sextillion	1021	1036	✓		✓		✓	✓	✓
septillion	1024	1042	✓		✓		✓	✓	✓
octillion	1027	1048	✓		✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
nonillion	1030	1054	✓		✓		✓	✓	✓
decillion	1033	1060	✓		✓		✓	✓	✓
undecillion	1036	1066	✓				✓		✓
duodecillion	1039	1072	✓				✓		✓
tredecillion	1042	1078	✓				✓		✓
quattuordecillion	1045	1084	✓				✓		✓
quindecillion (quinquadecillion)	1048	1090	✓				✓		✓
sexdecillion (sedecillion)	1051	1096	✓				✓		✓
septendecillion	1054	10102	✓				✓		✓
octodecillion	1057	10108	✓				✓		✓
novemdecillion (novendecillion)	1060	10114	✓				✓		✓
vigintillion	1063	10120	✓		✓		✓	✓	✓
googol	10100	10100	✓		✓		✓	✓	✓
centillion	10303	10600	✓		✓
googolplex			✓		✓		✓	✓	✓