Names of large numbers

10

10Numbers that are larger than one million are usually either shown using scientific notation, or by words.

History

The words billion and trillion, and millions were first written to describe extremely large numbers in 1475 by Jehan Adam. In 1484, Nicolas Chuquet used the words million, billion, trillion, decillion, and even further to write and describe much larger numbers. For example, Adam's billion (Chuquet's (bi)llion) was used to write 10¹². While these were the first writings that used these words, Adam and Chuquet were probably not the creators of the words. The word million comes from the Old Italian millione. These words were most likely used a lot before the books were written.

Examples of large numbers

Number	Scientific notation	Grouping
6 000 000 000 000 000	6 × 1015	6 quadrillion
765 476 250 000 000	7.6547625 × 1014	765 trillion, 476 billion, 250 million
145 000	1.45 × 105	145 thousand

Names for large numbers

(For "missing" numbers, like 10^26, say "100 Septillion")

Scientific notation	Short Scale	Long Scale	SI Symbol	Metric prefix
1	One	One
10	Ten	Ten	da	Deca-
100	Hundred	Hundred	h	Hecto-
1000	Thousand	Thousand	k	Kilo-
10000	Ten thousand	Ten thousand	my	Myria-
100000	Hundred thousand	Hundred thousand
106	Million	Million	M	Mega-
109	Billion	Milliard	G	Giga-
1012	Trillion	Billion	T	Tera-
1015	Quadrillion	Billiard	P	Peta-
1018	Quintillion	Trillion	E	Exa-
1021	Sextillion	Trilliard	Z	Zetta-
1024	Septillion	Quadrillion	Y	Yotta-
1027	Octillion	Quadrilliard	R	Ronna-
1030	Nonillion	Quintilion	Q	Quetta-
1033	Decillion	Quintilliard
1036	Undecillion	Sextillion
1039	Duodecillion	Sextilliard
1042	Tredecillion	Septillion
1045	Quattuordecillion	Septilliard
1048	Quindecillion	Octillion
1051	Sexdecillion	Octilliard
1054	Septendecillion	Nonillion
1057	Octodecillion	Nonilliard
1060	Novemdecillion	Decillion
1063	Vigintillion	Decilliard
1066	Unvigintillion	Undecillion
1069	Duovigintillion	Undecilliard
1072	Trevigintillion	Duodecillion
1075	Quattuorvigintillion	Duodecilliard
1078	Quinvigintillion	Tredecillion
1081	Sexvigintillion	Tredecilliard
1084	Septenvigintillion	Quattuordecillion
1087	Octovigintillion	Quattuordecilliard
1090	Novemvigintillion	Quindecillion
1093	Trigintillion	Quindecilliard
1096	Untrigintillion	Sexdecillion
1099	Duotrigintillion	Sexdecilliard
10100	Googol	Googol
10123	Quadragintillion	Vigintilliard
10153	Quinquagintillion
10183	Sexagintillion
10213	Septuagintillion
10243	Octogintillion
10273	Nonagintillion
10303	Centillion	Quinquagintilliard
10603	Ducentillion
103003	Millinillion
1010100	Googolplex
10101034	Skewes' Number
<math display="block">10^{10^{10^{100}}}</math>	Googolplexian

There is also the number googol, which is a 1 with 100 zeros behind it (10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000), and the number googolplex, which is a 1 with a googol of zeros behind it, (10^{10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000}) (10¹⁰¹⁰⁰). The number googolplexplex, is a 1 with a googolplex number of zeros behind it.

The name centillion was made in the 19th century for the 100th "illion", being 10³⁰³ in short form and 10⁶⁰⁰ in long form.

Other websites

• Pointless Big Numbers
• Naming Large Numbers Archived 2022-08-11 at the Wayback Machine