Word forms: plural billionslanguage note: The plural form is billion after a number, or after a word or expression referring to a number, such as 'several'or 'a few'.
1. number
A billion is a thousand million.
...3 billion dollars.
This year, almost a billion birds will be processed in the region.
2. quantifier
If you talk about billions of people or things, you mean that there is a very large number of them but you do not know or do not want to say exactly how many.
Biological systems have been doing this for billions of years. [+ of]
He urged U.S. executives to invest billions of dollars in his country. [+ of]
You can also use billions as a pronoun.
He thought that it must be worth billions.
billion in British English
(ˈbɪljən)
nounWord forms: plural-lions or -lion
1.
one thousand million: it is written as 1 000 000 000 or 109
2.
(formerly, in Britain) one million million: it is written as 1 000 000 000 000 or 1012
3. (often plural)
any exceptionally large number
determiner
4. (preceded by a or a cardinal number)
a.
amounting to a billion
it seems like a billion years ago
b.
(as pronoun)
we have a billion here
Derived forms
billionth (ˈbillionth)
adjective, noun
Word origin
C17: from French, from bi-1 + -llion as in million
billion in American English
(ˈbɪljən)
noun
1.
a thousand millions (1,000,000,000)
2. British, Obsolete
trillion (a million millions)
adjective
3.
amounting to one billion in number
Word origin
Fr < bi-, bi-1 + (mi)llion
Examples of 'billion' in a sentence
billion
To get a single workable drug takes more than a decade and close to a billion pounds.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
More than four billion people live under a democratic government.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
The government stuffed hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer cash into its banks.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
Moving their treatment out of hospitals could save 4 billion a year.
Times, Sunday Times (2017)
This would raise 2 billion a year.
Times, Sunday Times (2017)
The government is investing 10 billion to fund its own plan for the future.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
Now the company has 40 billion of debt and network performance is declining.
Times, Sunday Times (2017)
The business is worth about 11 billion.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
It is part of a wider push to cut government property costs by about 2.2 billion over ten years.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
Investors also worry that Italy's fragile banks will struggle to raise the tens of billions of euros needed to shore up their balance sheets.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
The watchdog said that tackling duplicitous pricing practices could save consumers billions of pounds a year.
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
There are billions of pounds lining up.
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
I'VE thought of this really brilliant idea to save the country billions of pounds.
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
The owners do not have millions but billions to spend.
The Sun (2008)
It would also saddle holders of bonds they insure with billions of dollars of additional losses.
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
The odds of that happening by chance must be many billions to one.
The Sun (2013)
We are speaking about hundreds of billions of euros.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
The bailout billions will not save domestic jobs.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
Billions of dollars of investment are now waiting to be plunged into the most promising technologies.
Times, Sunday Times (2006)
Legacy conduct issues could cost many billions in fines and compensation.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
We have saved the taxpayer billions of pounds and driven up the number of people using the railway.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
It is aimed at raising awareness of the plight of one billion homeless people and to help them to improve their lives.
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
The company can easily raise 1.2 billion from an expected rights issue rather than using bank debt.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
The pair will be given an additional $3 billion to invest.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
The rail and bus company is laden with 1.8 billion of debt.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
As a result, for those first billion years one must simply reason backward.
Levenson, Thomas Ice Time: Climate, Science, and Life on Earth (1990)
The transaction would have been worth about $24 billion.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
In this short space of time the world's population shot from one to five billion people.
Holford, Patrick The Family Nutrition Workbook (1988)
It plans to invest 1.25 billion over five years.
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
Banks stand to lose nearly 6 billion if all those who have been penalised reclaim their losses for the past six years.
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
Net debt ended the year at 2.6 billion, much better than forecast.
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
The share placement is expected to raise 4 billion for the Treasury.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
We are a country of a billion and most are denied connectivity,' he said.
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
Local government borrowing for the month also rose to 2.9 billion from 900 million the previous year.