Imaginary words ending in the sound "-illion", such as zillion[1] and bazillion[2], are often used as fictitious names for an unspecified, large number, by analogy to names of large numbers such as billion and trillion. Their size is dependent upon the context, but can typically be considered large enough to be unfathomable by the average human mind.
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.
Many similar words are used, such as ananillion,[3] bajillion,[4] squillion,<ref name="a" /> skillion,[5] gonillion,[6] kabillion,[7] kajillion,[8] gajillion,[9] umptillion,[10] gagillion,[11] gadzillion,[12] gazillion,[13] godzillion,[14] hojillion,[15] grillion,[16] julillion,[17] and robillion.[18]
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."
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Topic: Phew! (Read 1499 times)