Definition:Gillion
Definition
Gillion is a rarely-used word for $10^9$.
Also known as
One gillion is the same as a billion in the short scale.
An archaic word for the same number is milliard.
Also defined as
The word gillion is also used as a rhetorical flourish to mean a very large number, of the order of an unspecified power of $10$.
Also see
Linguistic Note
The word gillion derives from the metric scaling prefix giga- coupled with the generic suffix -illion to indicate a power of $10$.
Its pronunciation is ambiguous. The initial g can be either hard, as in gate, or soft, as in general (hence giving the pronunciation jill-i-on).
A purist would prefer the hard g, as it matches with the conventional pronunciation of giga-.
However, in certain variants of the English language, giga- itself can also apparently be pronounced with the g soft.