British Billion

Umm... Was EuropeanBillion, now AmericanBillion?

3 more zero's than an American billion, is a British billion


More completely, it was once the case that when a Britisher used the term "Billion" it meant 10^12, or a million million. If one wanted to talk about 10^9 then one used the term "thousand million", or, in some cases, "milliard".

The most common usage now found in the United Kingdom is that "billion" means 10^9, just as it does in the USA. Some people know that there used to be a difference. "Milliard" is now never heard except in conversation with people who know these sorts of things.


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