How to use the large number names list
- Find a number by its name (quadrillion), its power of ten (10^15) or its zeros (15 zeros).
- Read how many zeros it has and the number written out in full.
- Check the long scale column if the number comes from a European language or an older British text.
How the names are built
The -illion names come from Latin numbers. In the short scale, the Latin number tells you how many groups of three zeros come after the first thousand: billion has 2 more groups (109), trillion 3 (1012), quadrillion 4 (1015). So a name’s power of ten is 3 × (Latin number) + 3.
| Latin root | Short scale | Power of ten |
|---|---|---|
| bi (2) | billion | 109 |
| tri (3) | trillion | 1012 |
| quadr (4) | quadrillion | 1015 |
| quint (5) | quintillion | 1018 |
| dec (10) | decillion | 1033 |
Short scale or long scale?
English uses the short scale, so a billion is a thousand million everywhere in English today. Many European languages, including French, German and Spanish, use the long scale, where a billion (billion, Billion, billón) is a million million. When translating a figure, check which scale it uses: a German Milliarde is an English billion.
To write any number out in words, use number to words. For the metric prefixes that name these powers in units, like giga for 109, see the metric prefixes chart.