A million is 106, or 1,000,000. A billion is one thousand million, or 1,000,000,000 (109). This is the common usage in English-speaking countries and is called the short scale. Countries in continental Europe and Latin America use the long scale where a billion is a million millions (1012).
The word billion originated from French word bi- (“two”) + -illion; i.e. a million million. It was first coined by Jehan Adam in 1475 as by-million and then rendered as byllion by Nicolas Chuquet in 1484.
Million originated from the Italian milione, from the Latin mille + the augmentative suffix -one.
Comparison chart
 | Billion | Million |
|---|---|---|
| Power of 10 | 10 to the 9th power (10^9) | 10 to the 6th power (10^6) |
| Number | 1,000,000,000 | 1,000,000 |
Magnitude of the difference
The magnitude of difference between billion and million can be illustrated with this example of the time scale:
- A million seconds is 12 days.
- A billion seconds is 31 years.
- A trillion seconds is 31,688 years.
The video further compares the three numbers
Other large numbers
- Million=1,000,000
- Billion=1,000,000,000
- Trillion=1,000,000,000,000
- Quintillion=1,000,000,000,000,000,000
- Sextillion=1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
- Nonillion=1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
- CENTILLION=1 followed by 303 zeros
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"Million vs Billion." Diffen.com. Diffen LLC, n.d. Web. 24 Jun 2022. < >
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