Long and short scale in the context of "Sextillion"

Play Trivia Questions online!

 or

Skip to study material about Long and short scale in the context of "Sextillion"
Ad spacer

⭐ Core Definition: Long and short scale

The long and short scales are two powers of ten number naming systems that are consistent with each other for smaller numbers, but are contradictory for larger numbers. Other numbering systems, particularly in East Asia and South Asia, have large number naming that differs from both the long and the short scales. Such numbering systems include the Indian numbering system and Chinese, Japanese, and Korean numerals. Much of the remainder of the world has adopted either the short or long scale. Countries using the long scale include most countries in continental Europe and most that are French-speaking, German-speaking and Spanish-speaking. Use of the short scale is found in most English-speaking and Arabic-speaking countries, most Eurasian post-communist countries, and Brazil.

For powers of ten less than 9 (one, ten, hundred, thousand, and million), the short and long scales are identical; but, for larger powers of ten, the two systems differ in confusing ways. For identical names, the long scale grows by multiples of one million (10), whereas the short scale grows by multiples of one thousand (10). For example, the short scale billion is one thousand million (10), whereas in the long scale, billion is one million million (10), making the word 'billion' a false friend between long- and short-scale languages. The long scale system includes additional names for interleaved values, typically replacing the word-ending '-ion' with '-iard'.

↓ Menu

>>>PUT SHARE BUTTONS HERE<<<

👉 Long and short scale in the context of Sextillion

Depending on context (e.g. language, culture, region), some large numbers have names that allow for describing large quantities in a textual form; not mathematical. For very large values, the text is generally shorter than a decimal numeric representation, although longer than scientific notation.

Two naming scales for large numbers have been used in English and other European languages since the early modern era: the long and short scales. Most English variants use the short scale today, but the long scale remains dominant in many non-English-speaking areas, including continental Europe and Spanish-speaking countries in the Americas. These naming procedures are based on taking the number n occurring in 10 (short scale) or 10 (long scale) and concatenating Latin roots for its units, tens, and hundreds place, together with the suffix -illion.

↓ Explore More Topics
In this Dossier

Long and short scale in the context of Billion

Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions:

  • 1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or 10 (ten to the ninth power), as defined on the short scale. This is now the most common sense of the word in all varieties of English; it has long been established in American English and has since become common in Britain and other English-speaking countries as well.
  • 1,000,000,000,000, i.e. one million million, or 10 (ten to the twelfth power), as defined on the long scale. This number is the historical sense of the word and remains the established sense of the word in other European languages. Though displaced by the short scale definition relatively early in US English, it remained the most common sense of the word in Britain until the 1950s and still remains in occasional use there.

American English adopted the short scale definition from the French (it enjoyed usage in France at the time, alongside the long-scale definition). The United Kingdom used the long scale billion until 1974, when the government officially switched to the short scale, but since the 1950s the short scale had already been increasingly used in technical writing and journalism. Moreover, in 1941, Winston Churchill remarked: "For all practical financial purposes a billion represents one thousand millions..."

↑ Return to Menu

Long and short scale in the context of Quadrillion

Depending on context (e.g. language, culture, region), some large numbers have names that allow for describing large quantities in a textual form; not mathematical. For very large values, the text is generally shorter than a decimal numeric representation although longer than scientific notation.

Two naming scales for large numbers have been used in English and other European languages since the early modern era: the long and short scales. Most English variants use the short scale today, but the long scale remains dominant in many non-English-speaking areas, including continental Europe and Spanish-speaking countries in the Americas. These naming procedures are based on taking the number n occurring in 10 (short scale) or 10 (long scale) and concatenating Latin roots for its units, tens, and hundreds place, together with the suffix -illion.

↑ Return to Menu
LINKED FROM (PARENTS)
← Billion ← Quadrillion ← Sextillion
LINKS TO (CHILDREN)
Power of 10 → Order of magnitude → East Asia → South Asia → Indian numbering system → Chinese numerals → Japanese numerals → Korean Peninsula → Geographical distribution of French speakers → Geographical distribution of German speakers → Hispanophone → Anglophone → Arabic → Brazil → False friend →