trillion

See also: Trillion

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: trĭl'yən, IPA^(key): /ˈtɹɪljən/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪljən

Etymology 1

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

Numeral

trillion (plural trillions)

1. (US, modern British, Australia, short scale) A million (times a) million: 1 followed by twelve zeros, 10¹².
   • 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 and Tami Luhby, “US national debt hits record $34 trillion”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     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]:

     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.

2. (dated British, Australia, long scale) A million (times a) million (times a) million: 1 followed by eighteen zeros, 10¹⁸.

Synonyms

• (10¹²): a long scale billion
• (10¹⁸): a short scale quintillion

abbreviations

• tln, tln.
• tn, tn.
• tril, tril.
• T, t, T., t.

Coordinate terms

• thousand
• million
• milliard
• thousand million
• billion
• quadrillion
• quintillion
• sextillion

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
• Hungarian: billió (hu)
• Indonesian: triliun, biliun
• Italian: bilione (it) f
• Japanese: 兆 (ja) (ちょう, chō)
• Javanese: kirna
• Khmer: ពាន់ពាន់លាន (pŏənpŏənliən), លានលាន (liən liən)
• Korean: 조(兆) (ko) (jo), 만억(萬億) (ko) (maneok)
• Malay: trilion (ms)
• Maltese: biljun
• Manchu: ᠰᠠᠵᠠ (saja)
• Navajo: chiyóón
• Persian: تریلیون (fa) (terilyon)
• Polish: bilion (pl) m inan
• Portuguese: bilião (pt) (Angola, Portugal), trilhão (pt) (Brazil)
• Romanian: bilion (ro) n
• Russian: триллио́н (ru) m (trillión)
• Sanskrit: महापद्म (sa) (mahāpadma)
• Slovak: bilión (sk) m
• Spanish: billón (es) m
• Swahili: trilioni
• Swedish: biljon (sv) c
• Tagalog: trilyon
• Tatar: триллион (tt) (trillion)
• Turkish: trilyon (tr)
• Ukrainian: трильйо́н (uk) m (trylʹjón)
• Vietnamese: nghìn tỉ, ngàn tỉ
• 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 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)
• Maori: tiriona
• Polish: trylion (pl) m inan
• Portuguese: trilião (pt) m (Angola, Portugal)
• Romanian: trilion (ro) n
• Russian: квинтиллио́н (ru) m (kvintillión)
• Sinhalese: ත්‍රිලියනය (triliyanaya)
• Slovak: trilión m
• Spanish: trillón (es) m
• 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

See also

• (short scale) Previous: billion. Next: quadrillion
• (long scale) Previous: billiard. Next: trilliard
• (SI prefix): tera-

Etymology 2

Coined by Harvey Pollack, because of the way the numbers read across a basketball box score.

Noun

trillion (plural trillions)

1. (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:

  (file)

Numeral

trillion m (plural trillions)

1. quintillion (10¹⁸)
2. (dated) trillion (10¹²)

Related terms

• billion, coined at same time

Descendants

• → Catalan: trilió

Further reading

• “trillion”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle French

Noun

trillion m (plural trillions)

1. 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)

1. trillion (10¹²)

Declension

    declension of trillion

Nominative	trillion
Genitive	trillionnıñ
Dative	trillionga
Accusative	trillionnı
Locative	trillionda
Ablative	trilliondan