# trillion

Pronunciation: say "TRIL-yuhn" /ˈtɹɪljən/

## Numeral

1. A quantity equal to a million million, or 1 followed by twelve zeros (10¹²). *(Australia)*
   - Simple: A number equal to a million millions, written as 1 with twelve zeros after it.
   - _Global plastic production has reached several trillion pounds since the 1950s._
   - _The company's transactions added up to three trillion yen last year._
2. An indefinitely large quantity, used loosely to suggest a huge amount without counting it exactly. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A huge number of things, more than you can easily count.
   - _Fans sent the singer a trillion messages after the surprise announcement._
   - _It feels like there are a trillion things left to do before the wedding._

## Noun

4. In basketball, a box-score line in which a player logs minutes played but no other recorded statistics. *(slang)*
   - Simple: In basketball, a player's record for a game in which they play but score no points and record no other stats.
   - _She picked up a trillion after a brief appearance in the fourth quarter._
   - _The backup guard earned a trillion despite three minutes on the floor._

## Numeral

3. In older British usage, a million million millions: 1 followed by eighteen zeros, equal to 10¹⁸. *(dated, Australia, British)*
   - Simple: A very large number equal to 1 followed by eighteen zeros, in the old British meaning.
   - _Nineteenth-century British texts measured astronomical distances in trillions of miles._
   - _The Edwardian treatise reckoned the cosmos to contain a trillion stars and more._

## Origin

**Meanings 1–3** — Borrowed from French trillion, formed from tri- ("three") plus the ending -illion.
**Meaning 4** — Coined by Harvey Pollack, based on the way the numbers read across a basketball box score.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/trillion (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).