gillion

English

Etymology

From gi(ga)- +‎ -illion. Modelled after million, billion etc. Compare also jillion.

Pronunciation

• enPR: gĭl'yən, jĭl'yən; IPA^(key): /ˈɡɪljən/, /ˈd͡ʒɪljən/
  • Note: the pronunciation with either a hard or soft g is meant to correspond to how the speaker pronounces the initial g of giga-.
• Homophones: jillion, Gillian, Jillian (for "soft" g; the names may alternatively be trisyllabic /ˈdʒɪl.i.ən/)
• Rhymes: -ɪljən

Numeral

gillion

1. (British, rare) A thousand million, proposed as an alternative to the (now little used) British milliard and the (ambiguous, in the UK) US billion.
   • 1968, N. W. Pirie, More About the Units (Nature vol. 220):

     The internationally agreed symbol for 10^6 is M and this is the initial letter of million. Would it not be logical and convenient to turn this happy accident into a principle and use G, the internationally agreed symbol for 10^9, as the initial letter of the word for 1,000,000,000? That number would thus be called a gillion. Whether the g should be hard or soft is a matter of opinion. I incline to hard because of the derivation from giga.

Noun

gillion (plural gillions)

1. (slang, hyperbolic) An unspecified large number (of).
   • 2012, Rebecca Smith, A Bit of Earth:

     At Guy's school there had been an outdoor pool, in use from April to October, a watery grave for a billion insects, or quite possibly a gillion or a squillion. The bright turquoise lining had wrinkled under the children's feet.

   • 2022, Frank Voss, My House Was Not a Home:

     I looked down to see my dog, Roof, short for Rufus, curled in sleep below the window, unworried by the wings of hummingbirds whirring at speeds of a gillion miles an hour as they flitted in and out of the trumpets of honeysuckle growing on the side of the house.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:zillion.