Etymology

trillion

T1R1I1L1L1I1O1N1

Today it means: A million (times a) million: 1 followed by twelve zeros, 10¹². Full definition →

French trillion
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. French · borrowed fromtrillion
  2. English todaytrillion

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.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.