Talk:Names of large numbers/Archive 2

Extensions of the standard dictionary numbers
This table illustrates several systems for naming large numbers, and shows how they can be extended past decillion.

Traditional British usage assigned new names for each power of one million (the long scale): 1,000,000 = 1 million; 1,000,0002 = 1 billion; 1,000,0003 = 1 trillion; and so on. It was adapted from French usage, and is similar to the system that was documented or invented by Chuquet.

Traditional American usage (which, oddly enough, was also adapted from French usage but at a later date), and modern British usage, assigns new names for each power of one thousand (the short scale.) Thus, a billion is 1000 × 10002 = 109; a trillion is 1000 × 10003 = 1012; and so forth. Due to its dominance in the financial world (and by the US-dollar) this was adopted for official United Nations documents.

Traditional French usage has varied; in 1948, France, which had been using the short scale, reverted to the long scale.

The term milliard is unambiguous and always means 109. It is almost never seen in American usage, rarely in British usage, and frequently in European usage. The term is sometimes attributed to a French mathematician named Jacques Peletier du Mans circa 1550 (for this reason, the long scale is also known as the Chuquet-Peletier system), but the Oxford English Dictionary states that the term derives from post-Classical Latin term milliartum, which became milliare and then milliart and finally our modern term.

With regard to names ending in -illiard for numbers 106·n+3, milliard is certainly in widespread use in languages other than English, but the degree of actual use of the larger terms is questionable. For example, as of 2004, Google searches on French-language pages for trillion, quadrillion, and quintillion return 6630, 312, and 127 hits respectively, whilst searches for trilliard and quadrilliard return only 102 and 7 hits respectively. However, one has to take into account that these large numbers are not often needed and that scientists almost always use scientific notation. In German the terms "Milliarde", "Billiarde" etc. are out of question.

The naming procedure for large numbers is based on taking the number n occurring in 103n+3 (short scale) or 106n (long scale) and concatenating Latin roots for its units, tens, and hundreds place, together with the suffix -illion. In this way, numbers up to 103·999+3 = 103000 (short scale) or 106·999 = 105994 (long scale) may be named. The choice of roots and the concatenation procedure is that of the standard dictionary numbers if n is 20 or smaller, and, for larger n (between 21 and 999), is due to John Horton Conway and Richard Guy. Since the system of using Latin prefixes will become ambiguous for numbers with exponents of a size which the Romans rarely counted to, like 106,000,258, Conway and Guy have also proposed a consistent set of conventions which permit, in principle, the extension of this system to provide English names for any integer whatsoever.

Names of reciprocals of large numbers do not need to be listed here, because they are regularly formed by adding -th, e.g. quattuordecillionth, centillionth, etc.

For additional details, see Billion (disambiguation) and long and short scales.

What did Chuquet really propose?
Several Web pages make a reference to a passage in Chuquet's book in which he shows a large number marked off into groups of six digits and comments:


 * Ou qui veult le premier point peult signiffier million Le second point byllion Le tiers poit tryllion Le quart quadrillion Le cinqe quyllion Le sixe sixlion Le sept.e septyllion Le huyte ottyllion Le neufe nonyllion et ainsi des ault's se plus oultre on vouloit preceder


 * (Or if you prefer the first mark can signify million, the second mark byllion, the third mark tryllion, the fourth quadrillion, the fifth quyillion, the sixth sixlion, the seventh septyllion, the eighth ottyllion, the ninth nonyllion and so on with others as far as you wish to go).

This clearly refers to names in steps of powers of six. But *Robert Munafo's article quotes a different passage,


 * Au lieu de dire mille milliers, on dira million, au lieu de dire mille millions, on dira byllion, etc..., et tryllion, quadrilion ... octylion, nonyllion, et ainsi des autres si plus oultre on voulait proceder. French: "Instead of saying one thousand thousand, one may say million; instead of saying one thousand million, one may say billion, and trillion, quadrillion, ... octillion, nonillion, and others as well, as far as you wish to go."

and comments


 * These number names were adopted throughout Europe during the next century (with minor spelling changes for each language). Chuquet intended the names to represent powers of 1000 as the quote above clearly shows.

So, it's not at all clear to me what the Chuquet system really was. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dpbsmith (talk • contribs) 13:36, 5 June 2004 (UTC)

Usage in science
Shouldn't this article have a bit of text about the fact that none of these words are used in science because of their ambiguous nature? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.122.115.98 (talk) 16:49, 11 August 2005 (UTC)

Other names of large numbers
I have listed other names of large numbers on AfD (Articles_for_deletion/Other_names_of_large_numbers), people watching this page might want to comment on it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ruud Koot (talk • contribs) 03:09, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Quadrillion
Just thought I would mention I found this article when I actually needed to use the word for 1015 and did not know it's word.

Thanks for the informative article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by H (talk • contribs) 16:48, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

A suggestion of large number names
Why use centillion, not hectillion, for 10303? In SI prefix, "centi-" is 10−2, and "hecto-" is 102, and the number is "100-illion", not "0.01-illion"!!! Thus should be hectillion, not centillion.

A suggestion of larger number names is: (in American scale, or short scale)

hectillion = 10303

kilillion = 103003

megillion = 103×10 6+3

gigillion = 103×10 9+3

terillion = 103×10 12+3

petillion = 103×10 15+3

exillion = 103×10 18+3

zettillion = 103×10 21+3

yottillion = 103×10 24+3

xonillion = 103×10 27+3

wecillion = 103×10 30+3

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 101.8.178.137 (talk) 15:32, 11 June 2018 (UTC)

Please add Googolplexian
10^10^10^100unsigned comment added by 2601:CD:C882:8D20:4008:B107:4C6A:293C (talk) 17:18, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

nomenclature for numbers very large indices base 10
￼My son (Charlie C.) asked about what a number would be called if it had a quadrillion zeros.

He came up with a prefix dind-

So dindquadrillion.

Prefix dind meaning "deco index"

Is this type of number already succintly named? If so, what nomenclature do people use? 2001:8003:ED68:D500:5C75:FE6A:9568:ADDC (talk) 21:48, 2 September 2023 (UTC)


 * I don't think we have or need common names for such numbers, simply because there aren't that many of anything. For example, to describe the number of atoms in the universe, we only need 80 zeros.  Even there, 1080 seems a lot easier to understand than obscure wording such as a hundred quinvigintillion. Certes (talk) 22:56, 2 September 2023 (UTC)

Million,Milliard,Billion,Trillion,Quadrillion,Quintillion had a Un,Duo,Tre,Quattuor and Quin
Well here it is:

Unmillion Unmilliard Unbillion Untrillion Unquadrillion Unquintillion

Duomillion Duomilliard Duobillion Duotrillion Duoquadrillion Duoquintillion

Tremillion Tremilliard Trebillion Tretrillion Trequadrillion Trequintillion

Quattuormillion Quattuormilliard Quattuorbillion Quattuortrillion Quattuorquadrillion Quattuorquintillion

Quinmillion Quinmilliard Quinbillion Quintrillion Quinquadrillion Quinquintillion

That's all. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.88.205.90 (talk) 20:17, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

Suggestions of numbers
Hectillion = 103,078 Unhectillion = 103,081 Duohectillion = 103,084 Trehectillion = 103,087 Quattuorhectillion = 103,090 Quinhectillion = 103,093 Sexhectillion = 103,096 Septenhectillion = 103,099 Octohectillion = 103,102 Novemhectillion = 103,105 213.211.86.128 (talk) 10:23, 19 September 2023 (UTC)


 * Thank you, but this article is only for common names used widely in reliable sources. Wikipedia does not publish original research such as inventing new names. Certes (talk) 12:08, 19 September 2023 (UTC)

Maximusquintillion
It's 101,000,000,000,000,000,000 or 10 10 18 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.132.8.107 (talk) 14:01, 25 November 2023 (UTC)