# Is there one correct abbreviation for millions in financial terms? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 7, 2016, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-correct-abbreviation-for-millions-in-financial-terms/759311 "2016-07-07T14:56:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-correct-abbreviation-for-millions-in-financial-terms/759311/1 "2016-07-07T14:56:16Z")
There is varying usage of abbreviations for the term millions in financial writing. Sometimes it is shown as “M” and sometimes as “MM”. Those that subscribe to the “MM” usage refer to the roman numeral M as reference to 1,000 and therefore a thousand thousands or one million would be MM. Many of these subscribers use the single M to reference a thousand. But there is also many people that refer to a thousand as a “K”. ten thousand = $10K or $10M ten million = $10M or $10MM Hence the confusion that is created is $10M, ten million or ten thousand. My personal usage is $10K to refer to ten thousand and $10MM to refer to ten million, and avoid the usage of the single “M” altogether. So, is there one correct usage? Or is it more of a common usage thing? ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-correct-abbreviation-for-millions-in-financial-terms/759311/2 "2016-07-07T16:07:42Z")
I’ve never seen “M” as thousand and “MM” as million. I’m not a professional in the finance world but I did major in Business Administration in college and took economics courses. If anyone uses that terminology it’s not used in the US or it’s pretty obscure. The standard is K for thousand (kilo) and M for million (mega). In Googling the term I do see where M and MM are used by some financial institutions but it seems to be somewhat archaic. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-correct-abbreviation-for-millions-in-financial-terms/759311/3 "2016-07-07T16:09:29Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > So, is there one correct usage? Or is it more of a common usage thing? Unfortunately, there is no one correct usage. I work for a financial institution, and _within the institution_ there is more than one correct way to indication millions. For certain reports I write, I have to write them one way for one purpose, and then go through and change all of the abbreviations for a second purpose. It’s bizarre, but there really is no standard. **Atamasama** - In the very large, well-known U.S. financial institution for which I work, MM is the more common abbreviation for million. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-correct-abbreviation-for-millions-in-financial-terms/759311/4 "2016-07-07T16:18:56Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > If anyone uses that terminology it’s not used in the US or it’s pretty obscure. Among financial professionals in the US it has a very common usage, and so for decades. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-correct-abbreviation-for-millions-in-financial-terms/759311/5 "2016-07-07T16:26:55Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > There is varying usage of abbreviations for the term millions in financial writing. Sometimes it is shown as “M” and sometimes as “MM”. Those that subscribe to the “MM” usage refer to the roman numeral M as reference to 1,000 and therefore a thousand thousands or one million would be MM. In Roman numerals, MM would be two thousand, not a million. I’ve seen people use both M and MM to refer to a million, but I’ve never seen anyone use M to mean a thousand. We’ve got the perfectly good K for that, as mentioned upthread. ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-correct-abbreviation-for-millions-in-financial-terms/759311/6 "2016-07-07T16:52:29Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > I’ve never seen “M” as thousand and “MM” as million. I’m not a professional in the finance world but I did major in Business Administration in college and took economics courses. If anyone uses that terminology it’s not used in the US or it’s pretty obscure. > > The standard is K for thousand (kilo) and M for million (mega). > > In Googling the term I do see where M and MM are used by some financial institutions but it seems to be somewhat archaic. I’m not a financial professional, but definitely have the need to represent numbers in the thousands, millions, and billions in professional contexts. I use k, MM, and B respectively, and I clearly picked that up from somewhere. I think this usage is more common than you think. ---
**Author:** ![Anny\_Middon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Anny\_Middon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anny_Middon)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-correct-abbreviation-for-millions-in-financial-terms/759311/7 "2016-07-07T17:09:50Z")
> [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](#): > > I’m not a financial professional, but definitely have the need to represent numbers in the thousands, millions, and billions in professional contexts. I use k, MM, and B respectively, and I clearly picked that up from somewhere. I think this usage is more common than you think. I do it that way, too. Related question: Is there a standard way to differentiate between a US billion and a UK billion? ---
**Author:** ![yellowjacketcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yellowjacketcoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowjacketcoder)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-correct-abbreviation-for-millions-in-financial-terms/759311/8 "2016-07-07T17:14:26Z")
> [@Anny\_Middon](#): > > I do it that way, too. > > Related question: Is there a standard way to differentiate between a US billion and a UK billion? 10^9 and 10^12 🆒 I use K and M when I’m talking about non-monetary amounts in thousands and millions, while I use K and MM when I’m talking about monetary amounts in those ranges. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-correct-abbreviation-for-millions-in-financial-terms/759311/9 "2016-07-07T17:16:35Z")
> [@Anny\_Middon](#): > > I do it that way, too. > > Related question: Is there a standard way to differentiate between a US billion and a UK billion? No - except as you used it. The UK media tend to use a billion to mean a thousand million these days. I was just listening to a report that the HS2 rail project is £5 billion short. I do really hope that this is £5,000,000,000 rather than £5,000,000,000,000. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-correct-abbreviation-for-millions-in-financial-terms/759311/10 "2016-07-07T20:10:38Z")
When properly done, there is a footnote or a parenthetical note at the first place that the abbreviation is used, to indicate what it stands for. Then further references in the same document do not need any further notes. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-correct-abbreviation-for-millions-in-financial-terms/759311/11 "2016-07-07T21:23:17Z")
> [@Anny\_Middon](#): > > I do it that way, too. > > Related question: Is there a standard way to differentiate between a US billion and a UK billion? Those are the wrong terms. It’s ‘short scale billion’ and ‘long scale billion’. Wiki has an article [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales). If you scroll down, you’ll see that the graphic shows the UK as using the short scale. ---
**Author:** ![GreedySmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a698b9/32.png) [@GreedySmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreedySmurf)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-correct-abbreviation-for-millions-in-financial-terms/759311/12 "2016-07-07T22:56:07Z")
20 year banking career in Australia, standard usage is K for thousands and M for millions. MM I’ve always thought was almost a regional usage, in being most closely associated with the USA. Certainly the only times I’ve directly encountered its usage in Australia was by an American. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-correct-abbreviation-for-millions-in-financial-terms/759311/13 "2016-07-07T23:11:41Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > **Atamasama** - In the very large, well-known U.S. financial institution for which I work, MM is the more common abbreviation for million. Likewise for the large Canadian bank for which I work. But I really doubt that any of my co-workers would look at a figure like “$12M” and think it meant $12,000. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-correct-abbreviation-for-millions-in-financial-terms/759311/14 "2016-07-07T23:36:01Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Those are the wrong terms. It’s ‘short scale billion’ and ‘long scale billion’. Wiki has an article [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales). If you scroll down, you’ll see that the graphic shows the UK as using the short scale. I never even heard of long and short scale until now. From the link, it looks as if it was a French idea - échelle courte and échelle longue that was never universally adopted. In my youth, it was American and English billions, although billions were such large numbers that they rarely got a mention anyway. Inflation has made it so that a mere millionaire is only ‘well off’. You need billions to be really wealthy. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-correct-abbreviation-for-millions-in-financial-terms/759311/15 "2016-07-08T00:13:51Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > So, is there one correct usage? Or is it more of a common usage thing? All usage is either common or geared to a particular style guide. No usage can be “correct” or more correct than any other usage. > [@Quartz](#): > > Those are the wrong terms. It’s ‘short scale billion’ and ‘long scale billion’. Wiki has an article [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales). If you scroll down, you’ll see that the graphic shows the UK as using the short scale. There may be a name for overall system, but those are not the names for the individual terms. I can’t find any evidence that anyone refers to the “short scale billion” or “long scale billion” in actual usage (other, obviously, than in discussions of the scales). ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-correct-abbreviation-for-millions-in-financial-terms/759311/16 "2016-07-08T00:26:19Z")
Both of Thailand’s English-language dailies use a lowercase “m,” attached to the number – for example, $10m. But only in headlines, never in text. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-correct-abbreviation-for-millions-in-financial-terms/759311/17 "2016-07-08T01:02:59Z")
On the financials I see, it’s typically stated near the beginning that monetary units are $1000k (or sometimes $1k). All money is then listed as unlabeled numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-correct-abbreviation-for-millions-in-financial-terms/759311/18 "2016-07-08T01:22:16Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > There is varying usage of abbreviations for the term millions in financial writing. Sometimes it is shown as “M” and sometimes as “MM”. Those that subscribe to the “MM” usage refer to the roman numeral M as reference to 1,000 and therefore a thousand thousands or one million would be MM. Many of these subscribers use the single M to reference a thousand. But there is also many people that refer to a thousand as a “K”. I suspect influence of some language which is not Latin… In Spanish M would be an abbreviation of million, MM of millions. Latin does not do that, plurals are abbreviated with a single letter. English doesn’t usually do that either, but “not usually” doesn’t mean it can’t be done. I don’t know how the abbreviations would work in French or Dutch, two languages which were dominant in finance for centuries. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-correct-abbreviation-for-millions-in-financial-terms/759311/19 "2016-07-08T01:23:40Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > I’ve never seen anyone use M to mean a thousand. We’ve got the perfectly good K for that, as mentioned upthread. My father (born in the 1920s) always used M for thousand. He picked it up in grade school before it was common to teach metric prefixes and abbreviations. He continued to use it in a monetary context even after learning the metric system in college. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-correct-abbreviation-for-millions-in-financial-terms/759311/20 "2016-07-08T01:25:15Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > English doesn’t usually do that either, but “not usually” doesn’t mean it can’t be done. One example of the top of my head is “p” for “page” and “pp” for pages. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-correct-abbreviation-for-millions-in-financial-terms/759311.md?page=2)