Indefinite and Fictitious Numbers - -illion

-illion

Words with the suffix "-illion", most commonly zillion, jillion, gadzillion and gazillion, are often used as fictitious names for an unspecified, large number by analogy to names of large numbers such as million, billion and trillion. Their size is dependent upon the context, but can typically be considered large enough to be unfathomable.

These terms are often used as hyperbole or for comic effect, or in loose, unconfined conversation to present an un-guessably large number. Since these are undefined, they have no mathematical validity and no accepted order, since none is necessarily larger or smaller than any of the others.

The "-illion" concept is so well established that it is the basis of a joke, in which a speaker misunderstands the word Brazilian (being from the nation of Brazil) as an enormous number called "brazillion".

Many similar words are used, such as bajillion, bazillion, dillion, fantillion, gadzillion, gagillion, gajillion, godzillion, grillion, hojillion, kabillion, kajillion, katrillion, killion, robillion, skillion, squillion, jacobillion, and umptillion. Also, the suffix can be replaced with "-illionaire" to describe wealthy people.

These words can be transformed into ordinal numbers or fractions by the usual pattern of appending the suffix -th, e.g., "I asked her for the zillionth time."

Read more about this topic:  Indefinite And Fictitious Numbers