# Proper number name

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-number-name/444946>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 11, 2008, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-number-name/444946 "2008-04-11T21:16:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2008, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-number-name/444946/1 "2008-04-11T21:16:35Z")

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Or what would be the name of 10 to the 63rd power? I mean like we have billion and quintillion and such, is there any way to acertain what the common name for such a number would be?

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**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2008, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-number-name/444946/2 "2008-04-11T21:19:33Z")

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Wikipedia’s article on [Names of large numbers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_large_numbers) suggests that in the US system it would be “vigintillion”

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**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2008, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-number-name/444946/3 "2008-04-11T21:31:41Z")

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Well hell, I wished I could have found that. Someone just told me that and I bet then $5 that they were nuts. Stupid stupid people who aren’t stupid all the time. 😃

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**Author:** ![Bytegeist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2008, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-number-name/444946/4 "2008-04-12T03:24:44Z")

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[QUOTE=Giles]  
Wikipedia’s article on [Names of large numbers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_large_numbers) . . .

[/QUOTE]

Look at 10[sup]3003[/sup], on the lower chart.

_Millillion_??

As in: _Who wants to be a millillionaire?_

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**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2008, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-number-name/444946/5 "2008-04-12T11:10:19Z")

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Someone will correct me if I’m wrong (this being SDMB and all) but many Europeans hiccup between million and billion. They go from million to thousand million to billion, so if you say billion, what they’re thinking of is what we call trillion.

Tangent: they also reverse decimals and commas, so 1 million is written 1.000.000 and you pay 1,50 for that cup of coffee.