trillion

CEFRB2

/ˈtɹɪljən/

noun · numeral

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
noun
The number 1 followed by twelve zeros.
02
noun
Extra detail
An unspecified very large number.

Examples

A light-year is the distance light travels in one year. It's 9.5 trillion (9,500,000,000,000) kilometers.
The Andromeda Galaxy is about twenty trillion kilometers from Earth.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses: 5
Parts of speech: 2
Citations: 3
Synonyms: 2

Also pronounced

/ˈtɹɪ(l)jən/

Deep Dive

numeral

Extra meanings

Either of two large amounts:
A million (times a) million (times a) million: 1 followed by eighteen zeros, 10¹⁸.
A million (times a) million: 1 followed by twelve zeros, 10¹².

More examples

In context

The current debt limit stands at $15.2 trillion.
There were trillions of people at the concert.
Near-synonyms: gazillion; see also Thesaurus:zillion

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The national debt has reached over seven blank dollars, a number with twelve zeros.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Citations

The word in print, with each source given in full.

Javik: Stand in the ashes of a trillion dead souls and ask the ghosts if honor matters. Their silence is your answer.
2012, BioWare, Mass Effect 3: From Ashes (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, PC, scene: Normandy SR-2
Data published by the Treasury Department showed that “total public debt outstanding” rose to $34.001 trillion on December 29.
2024 January 3, Hanna Ziady and Tami Luhby, “US national debt hits record $34 trillion”, in CNN
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.
2025 March 7, Kayla Tausche, “Dismantling of Education Department puts future of trillions of dollars in student loans in question”, in CNN

Keep trillion

Looking a word up is the easy part. LexUp remembers which words you have met and brings them back at the point you were about to forget them.

Download on theApp Store Get it onGoogle Play

Origin

noun

Borrowed from French trillion, from French tri- (“three”) + -illion, equivalent to tri- + -illion. The noun was coined by American basketball player Harvey Pollack, because of the way the numbers read across a basketball box score.