Nonillion

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -en, -ɪljÉ™n

Origin

-("nine") + non + -

Numeral

1. (US, modern British & Australian, w, Long and short scales, short scale) 10

• 1922, S. E. Chapman, Potentiality of the Infinitesimals, As we have seen that one nought goes to each potency, for the thirtieth potency we will have for the denominator one followed by thirty noughts; or the original drop of drug in one nonillion drops of alcohol!
• 2001, Raymond E. Fowler, The Melchizedek Connection , page 70:Do ya not be knowin' that there are 10 nonillion atoms within the likes of us?
• 2011, Desmond Walls Allen, Family History Detective: A step-by-step guide to investigating your family tree, The figure is 1,267,700,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. In layperson's terms, that's a little over 1.2 nonillion ancestors in the 100th generation.
• 2012, Jim Berge, Prayer, Quantum Physics and Hotel Mattresses: Dissolving the Barrier Between the Seen and Unseen, Hugh: Just think of the tremendous gravity in a star like the sun. Its mass is a few nonillion pounds.
  Henry: Nonillion? Are you making that up?
  Hugh: No, it's just one of those things that sticks in my hyperactive brain. A nonillion is a number to the 30th power,...
• 2012 September 21, Cecil Adams, "The Straight Dope" (syndicated column):Making certain bold assumptions, my assistant Una determined that chilling the sun’s core to below 10 million degrees would require an ice cube 562,000 miles on a side. If you were planning on using standard-sized cubes from your kitchen freezer, you’d need about 45 nonillion of them.
1. (dated British & Australian, Long and short scales) 10

• 1819, George Gregory, A new and complete dictionary of arts and sciences: including the latest improvement and discovery and the present states of every branch of human knowledge, volume 1 (Collins and Co.), page 248:The first six figures from the right hand are called the unit period, the next six the million period, after which the trillion, quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion, septillion, octillion, and nonillion periods, follow in their order.
• 1886, Francis Ysidro Edgeworth, Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research Chapter The Calculus of Probabilities Applied to Psychical Research. II., The odds against the observed event having a purely fortuitous origin are a ⁴trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion (a nonillion nonillion) to one — odds to describe whose vastness "number fails."
  ⁴ As I understand, a million million is a billion, a million billion is a trillion, a million trillion is a quadrillion, and so on up to a nonillion.
• 2009, Henry Gobus, Human Ascent, Evolution started with an astronomical population explosion in the bacterial phase of five-nonillion†.†Gobus defines nonillion as 10