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In English, numbers are pronounced different ways in different regions. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

Cardinal numbers

Cardinal numbers refer to the size of a group. Aleph-0, the smallest infinite cardinal In mathematics, cardinal numbers, or cardinals for short, are generalized numbers used to measure the cardinality (size) of sets. ...

If a number is in the range 21 to 99, and the second digit is not zero, one should write the number as two words separated by a hyphen. Zero redirects here. ... This article is about the number one. ... 11 (eleven) is the natural number following 10 and preceding 12. ... This article is about the number 10. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Look up twelve in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... 20 (twenty) is the natural number following 19 and preceding 21. ... This article is about the number. ... 13 (thirteen) is the natural number after 12 and before 14. ... 30 (thirty) is the natural number following 29 and preceding 31. ... This article discusses the number Four. ... 14 (fourteen) is the natural number following 13 and preceding 15. ... 40 (forty) is the natural number following 39 and preceding 41. ... Look up five in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... 15 (fifteen) is the natural number following 14 and preceding 16. ... 50 (fifty) is the number following 49 and preceding 51. ... Look up six in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... 16 (sixteen) is the natural number following 15 and preceding 17. ... 60 (sixty) is the natural number following 59 and preceding 61. ... Seven Days of Creation - 1765 book, title page 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. ... 17 (seventeen) is the natural number following 16 and preceding 18. ... Look up seventy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up eight in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... 18 (eighteen) is the natural number following 17 and preceding 19. ... 80 (eighty) is the natural number following 79 and preceding 81. ... This article is about the number. ... 19 (nineteen) is the natural number following 18 and preceding 20. ... 90 (ninety) is the natural number preceded by 89 and followed by 91. ... This article is about the punctuation mark. ...

In English, the hundreds are perfectly regular, except that the word hundred remains in its singular form regardless of the number preceding it (nevertheless, one may on the other hand say "hundreds of people flew in", or the like) 21 (twenty-one) is the natural number following 20 and preceding 22. ... 25 (twenty-five) is the natural number following 24 and preceding 26. ... 32 (thirty-two) is the natural number following 31 and preceding 33. ... 58 is the natural number following 57 and preceding 59. ... 64 (sixty-four) is the natural number following 63 and preceding 65. ... 79 (seventy-nine) is the natural number following 78 and preceding 80. ... 83 (eighty-three) is the natural number following 82 and preceding 84. ... // 99 (ninety-nine) is the natural number following 98 and preceding 100. ... 100 (the Roman numeral is C for centum) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. ...

So too are the thousands, with the number of thousands followed by the word "thousand" 100 (one hundred) (the Roman numeral is C for centum) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. ... 200 is the natural number following 199 and preceding 201. ... Nine hundred is the natural number following eight hundred ninety-nine and preceding nine hundred one. ...

In American usage, four-digit numbers with non-zero hundreds are often named using multiples of "hundred" and combined with tens and ones: "One thousand one", "Eleven hundred three", "Twelve hundred twenty-five", "Four thousand forty-two", or "Ninety-nine hundred ninety-nine." In British usage, this style is common for multiples of 100 between 1,000 and 2,000 (e.g. 1,500 as "fifteen hundred") but not for higher numbers. Look up one thousand in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... 2000 (two thousand) is the natural number following 1999 and preceding 2001. ... Look up ten thousand in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... One hundred thousand (100000) is the natural number following 99999 and preceding 100001. ... Look up million in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Americans may pronounce four-digit numbers with non-zero tens and ones as pairs of two-digit numbers without saying "hundred" and inserting "oh" for zero tens: "twenty-six fifty-nine" or "forty-one oh five". This usage is avoided for numbers less than 2500 if the context allows confusion with time of day: "ten ten" or "twelve oh four."

Intermediate numbers are read differently depending on their use. Their typical naming occurs when the numbers are used for counting. Another way is for when they are used as labels. The second column method is used much more often in American English than British English. The third column is used in British English, but rarely in American English (although the use of the second and third columns is not necessarily directly interchangeable between the two regional variants). In other words, the British dialect can seemingly adopt the American way of counting, but it is specific to the situation (in this example, bus numbers). For other uses, see American English (disambiguation). ... British English (BrE, BE, en-GB) is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere in the Anglophone world. ...

Note: When writing a cheque (or check), the number 100 is always written "one hundred". It is never "a hundred". Example of a Canadian cheque. ...

Note that in American English, many students are taught not to use the word and anywhere in the whole part of a number, so it is not used before the tens and ones. It is instead used as a verbal delimiter when dealing with compound numbers. Thus, instead of "three hundred and seventy-three", one would say "three hundred seventy-three". For details, see American and British English differences. For other uses, see American English (disambiguation). ... This is one of a series of articles about the differences between American English and British English, which, for the purposes of these articles, are defined as follows: American English (AmE) is the form of English used in the United States. ...

For numbers above a million, there are two different systems for naming numbers in English:

• the long scale (decreasingly used in British English) designates a system of numeric names in which a thousand million is called a milliard (but the latter usage is now rare), and billion is used for a million million.
• the short scale (always used in American English and increasingly in British English) designates a system of numeric names in which a thousand million is called a billion, and the word milliard is not used

Although British English has traditionally followed the long-scale numbering system, the short-scale usage has become increasingly common in recent years. For example, the UK Government and BBC websites use the newer short-scale values exclusively. The long and short scales are two different numerical systems used throughout the world: Short scale is the English translation of the French term échelle courte. ... The long and short scales are two different numerical systems used throughout the world: Short scale is the English translation of the French term échelle courte. ... Look up million in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Milliard is a French-derived word meaning the number 1,000,000,000 (109; one thousand million; SI prefix giga). ... Trillion may mean either of the two numbers (see long and short scales for more detail): 1,000,000,000,000 (one million million; ) - increasingly common meaning in English language usage. ... The quadrillion is a large number which has one of two values depending on how or where it is being used. ... In some countries and languages using the long scale: one billiard = = one short scale quadrillion. ... Main article: Names of large numbers A quintillion is a number written as either: a 1 followed by 18 zeros (10 to the 18th power, as used in the short scale system of numeration. ... Trillion may mean either of the two numbers (see long and short scales for more detail): 1,000,000,000,000 (one million million; ) - increasingly common meaning in English language usage. ...

Here are some approximate composite large numbers in American English:

Often, large numbers are written with (preferably non-breaking) half-spaces or thin spaces separating the thousands (and, sometimes, with normal spaces or apostrophes) instead of commas—to ensure that confusion is not caused in countries where a decimal comma is used. Thus, a million is often written 1 000 000. Look up million in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In computing, a nonbreaking space (NBSP) is a special space character that prevents an automatic line break (line wrap) at its position. ... A space is a punctuation convention for providing interword separation in some scripts, including the Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, and Arabic. ... This article is about the idea of space. ... An apostrophe An apostrophe (French, from the Greek αποστροφος προσωδια, the accent of elision) ( ’ ) is a punctuation and sometimes diacritic mark in languages written in the Latin alphabet. ... For other uses, see Comma. ... The decimal separator is used to mark the boundary between the integer and the fractional parts of a decimal numeral. ...

In some areas, a point (. or ·) may also be used as a thousands' separator, but then, the decimal separator must be a comma. Point, in typography, may also refer to a dot grapheme (e. ... The decimal separator is a symbol used to mark the boundary between the integral and the fractional parts of a decimal numeral. ... The decimal separator is a symbol used to mark the boundary between the integral and the fractional parts of a decimal numeral. ...

Specialised numbers

A few numbers have special names (in addition to their regular names):

• 0: has several other names, depending on context:
  • zero: formal scientific usage
  • naught / nought: mostly British usage
  • aught: Mostly archaic but still occasionally used when a digit in mid-number is 0 (as in "thirty-aught-six", the .30-06 Springfield rifle cartridge and by association guns that fire it)
  • oh: used when spelling numbers (like telephone, bank account, bus line)
  • nil: in general sport scores, British usage ("The score is two-nil.")
  • nothing: in general sport scores, American usage ("The score is two to nothing.")
  • null: used technically to refer to an object or idea related to nothingness, such as the null value in computer science which is technically very different from zero.
  • love: in tennis (origin disputed, often said to come from French l'œuf, "egg")
  • zilch, nada (from Spanish), zip: used informally when stressing nothingness; this is true especially in combination with one another ("You know nothing—zero, zip, nada, zilch!")
  • nix: also used as a verb

• 2:
  • couple
  • brace
  • pair

• 6:half a dozen
• 12: a dozen (first power of the duodecimal base), used mostly in commerce
• 13: a baker's dozen
• 20: a score (first power of the vigesimal base), nowadays archaic; famously used in the opening of the Gettysburg Address: "Four score and seven years ago..." The Number of the Beast in the King James Bible is rendered "Six hundred threescore and six".
• 50: half a century, literally half of a hundred, usually used in cricket scores.
• 88: can be known as two fat ladies.
• 100: a century, also used in cricket scores.
• 120: a great hundred (twelve tens; as opposed to the small hundred, i.e. 100 or ten tens), also called small gross (ten dozens), both archaic; also sometimes referred to as duodecimal hundred
• 144: a gross (a dozen dozens, second power of the duodecimal base), used mostly in commerce
• 1728: a great gross (a dozen gross, third power of the duodecimal base), used mostly in commerce
• 10,000: a myriad (a hundred hundred), commonly used in the sense of an indefinite very high number
• 100,000: a lakh (a hundred thousand), loanword used mainly in Indian English
• 10,000,000: a crore (a hundred lakh), loanword used mainly in Indian English
• 10¹⁰⁰: googol (1 followed by 100 zeros), used in mathematics; not to be confused with the name of the company Google (which was originally a misspelling of googol)
• : googolplex (1 followed by a googol of zeros)
• : googolplexplex (1 followed by a googolplex of zeros)

Combinations of numbers in most sports scores are read as in the following examples: Eight . ... This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Look up null in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see Tennis (disambiguation). ... Look up couple in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up brace in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The word pair, derived via the French words pair/paire from the Latin par equal, can mean: the French equivalent of peer, holder of a French Pairie, French high title roughly equivalent to a member of the British peerage 2 (number), two of something Couple, various senses for two joined... Dozen is another word for the number twelve. ... “Exponent” redirects here. ... The duodecimal (also known as base-12 or dozenal) system is a numeral system using twelve as its base. ... For other uses, see Bakers dozen (disambiguation). ... 20 (twenty) is the natural number following 19 and preceding 21. ... The vigesimal or base-20 numeral system is based on twenty (in the same way in which the ordinary decimal numeral system is based on ten). ... The only confirmed photo of Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg (seated), taken about noon, just after Lincoln arrived and some three hours before he spoke. ... For other uses, see Number of the Beast (disambiguation). ... The King James or Authorized Version of the Bible is an English translation of the Christian Bible first published in 1611. ... A century (From the Latin cent, one hundred) is one hundred consecutive years. ... This article is about the sport. ... A century (From the Latin cent, one hundred) is one hundred consecutive years. ... This article is about the sport. ... Today in English a hundred is always taken to be equal to 100. ... A small gross or short gross is an archaic term for an amount equal to ten dozen, i. ... Categories: | | ... A great gross is equal to a dozen gross, i. ... For other uses, see Myriad (disambiguation). ... A lakh (Hindi/Nepali : लाख, Urdu: Ù„Ú©Ú¾, Bengali: , Telugu : లక్ష, Tamil : இலட்சம்) is a unit in the Indian numbering system, widely used both in official and other contexts in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Pakistan. ... A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one language from another with little or no translation. ... A crore is a unit in the Indian numbering system, still widely used in Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan. ... For the Internet company, see Google. ... This article is about the corporation. ... This article is about the number. ...

• 1–0    British English: one nil; American English: one-nothing, or one-zero
• 0–0    British English: nil-nil, or nil all; American English: zero-zero or nothing-nothing, (occasionally scoreless or no score)
• 2–2    two-two (or two to two, or two all, or twos, or even at two, or two up.)

Naming conventions of Tennis scores (and related sports) work a lot differently to most other sports. Final Score Andy Roddick vs Cyril Saulnier A tennis match is composed of sets. ...

Ordinal numbers

Ordinal numbers refer to a position in a series. Common ordinals include: In linguistics, ordinal numbers are the words representing the rank of a number with respect to some order, in particular order or position (i. ...

Zeroth only has a meaning when counts start with zero, which happens in a mathematical or computer science context. The zeroth item is the initial item of a sequence, if that sequence is numbered beginning from zero rather than one. ... For other uses, see first. ... In mathematics, arithmetic or plain old numbers a tenth is one part of a unit or one divided equally into ten parts. ... In music or music theory an eleventh is the note eleven scale degrees from the root of chord and also the interval between the root and the eleventh. ... This article is about the unit of time. ... 12 (twelve) is the natural number following 11 and preceding 13. ... Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (known from 1935 to 1985 as Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation), also known as 20th Century Fox, is one of the six major American film studios. ... In music, see the following intervals: Major third Minor third The mediant, and the chord built on the mediant, is often called simply the third, as it is the third degree of the diatonic scale. ... In music or music theory a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. ... In music, see: Perfect fourth Augmented fourth or tritone The subdominant, and the chord built on the subdominant, is often simply called the fourth as it is the fourth scale degree. ... Fifth may refer to: One fifth, a quintile, or 20% of a certain amount The fifth in a series, or four after the first In the United States, the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution especially as in the expression Taking the Fifth. Fifth (Stargate), a robotic character in... In music, an fifteenth (sometimes abbreviated 15ma) is the interval between one musical note and another with one-quarter or quadruple the frequency. ... In music, see the intervals: Major sixth Minor sixth The submediant, and the chord built on the submediant, is often simply called the sixth as it is the sixth scale degree. ... As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. ... In music, see the intervals: seventh, musical group Major seventh minor seventh diminished seventh The note of a chord forming any of the above intervals with the chords root. ... ... In music or music theory a ninth is the note nine scale degrees from the root of chord and also the interval between the root and the ninth. ... For other meanings of mathematics or uses of math and maths, see Mathematics (disambiguation) and Math (disambiguation). ... Computer science, or computing science, is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their implementation and application in computer systems. ...

Ordinal numbers such as 21st, 33rd, etc., are formed by combining a cardinal ten with an ordinal unit.

Higher ordinals are not often written in words, unless they are round numbers (thousandth, millionth, billionth). They are written using digits and letters as described below. Here are some rules that should be borne in mind.

• The suffixes -th, -st, -nd and -rd are occasionally written superscript above the number itself.
• If the tens digit of a number is 1, then write "th" after the number. For example: 13th, 19th, 112th, 9,311th.
• If the tens digit is not equal to 1, then use the following table:

• For example: 2nd, 7th, 20th, 23rd, 52nd, 135th, 301st.

These ordinal abbreviations are actually hybrid contractions of a numeral and a word. 1st is "1" + "st" from "first". Similarly, we use "nd" for "second" and "rd" for "third". In the legal field and in some older publications, the ordinal abbreviation for "second" and "third" is simply, "d" This article is about the term superscript as used in typography. ...

• For example: 42d, 33d, 23d.

Any ordinal name that doesn't end in "first", "second", or "third", ends in "th".

Dates

There are a number of ways to read years. The following table offers a list of valid pronunciations and alternate pronunciations for any given year of the Gregorian calendar. The favorable pronunciation is determined by number of syllables. For the calendar of religious holidays and periods, see liturgical year. ...

Years are rarely read explicitly as ordinal numbers, as "[...] in the one thousand one hundred and ninety-seventh year of our Lord" (that is, 1197), even though ordinal numbers are implicit in traditional western calendrical systems. Also, years are numbered with cardinal numbers in astronomical usage, and in the Hindu and Mayan calendrical systems (see Year zero). Some Quaker communities refer to days of the week in ordinal fashion; in this usage "First Day" is Sunday, "Second Day" is Monday, etc. A year (from Old English gēr) is the time between two recurrences of an event related to the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. ... Centuries: 2nd century BC - 1st century BC - 1st century Decades: 50s BC 40s BC 30s BC 20s BC 10s BC - 0s BC - 0s 10s 20s 30s 40s 6 BC 5 BC 4 BC 3 BC 2 BC 1 BC 1 2 3 4 // Events Births December 25 - Jesus (died about... AD redirects here. ... BCE redirects here. ... This article is about the year 1. ... AD redirects here. ... BCE redirects here. ... Events Maximinus Thrax becomes Roman Emperor. ... This article is about the year 911 A.D.. For the emergency telephone number, see 9-1-1. ... Events Silesia is incorporated into territory ruled by Boleslaus I of Poland Pope Silvester II succeeds Pope Gregory V Sigmundur Brestisson introduces christianity in the Faroe Islands Deaths December 16 - Saint Adelaide of Italy (b. ... Europe in 1000 The year 1000 of the Gregorian Calendar was the last year of the 10th century as well as the last year of the first millennium. ... Leofric becomes Bishop of Exeter Hedeby is sacked by King Harald Hardraade of Norway during the course of a conflict with King Svein Estridsson of Denmark. ... // The Teutonic Order is expelled from Transylvania. ... Ğ: For the film, see: 1900 (film). ... Year 1901 (MCMI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday [1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Year 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... Events of 2008: (EMILY) Me Lesley and MIley are going to China! This article is about the year. ... Year 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... This article is about the year. ... 2009 (MMIX) will be a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2010 (MMX) will be a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2013 (MMXIII) will be a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2020 (MMXX) will be a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2025 (MMXXV) will be a common year starting on Tuesday in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2099 will be a future year of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2100 can refer to either: The first year of the 2100s decade. ... 2101 can refer to either: The year in the 2100s decade. ... For the political notion, see Year Zero (political notion). ... The Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers, or Friends, is a religious community founded in England in the 17th century. ...

• In British, European and International (covering most of the world) English, the day usually comes before the month and the ordinal suffix is always vocalised and often appended: "the 1st of October 1984". However, other usages are not exceptional; "October the First is too Late" is the name of a novel by the English astronomer Fred Hoyle. In writing, the and especially of, while vocalised, are generally left out from the written date, particularly when the date stands alone, such as when writing cheques: 1st October 1984. The full form was common in older English, as can be seen in old English literature. The three main written forms are therefore:
  • The 25th of January 2005 (old English extended form rarely used now in written form, but still fully used for all three forms in spoken English)
  • 25th January 2005 (omitting "the" and "of")
  • 25 January 2005 (omitting the ordinal suffix)

• In North American English, the day usually comes after the month and the ordinal suffix is rarely written, but optionally vocalized: "September 4, 1990" (read "September four(th), nineteen ninety"). The British form is still used for certain dates such as the Fourth of July.

Compare: Example of a Canadian cheque. ... Fourth of July redirects here. ...

• Today is (the) 14th (of) March 2004. (British and international form, read "Today is the fourteenth of March, two thousand and four").
• We signed the documents on June 10, 1969. (North American form, read "...on June ten(th), nineteen sixty-nine").

The comma before the year is optional. It is usually used in American English (September 4, 2004) but now seldom used in British and International English (4 September 2004). In abbreviations of month names, such as "Aug" for August, the period or full stop is often left out.

For an explanation of British, American and International usage for dates written in numbers, such as 14/03/2004 or 3/14/2004 or 2004-03-14, see calendar date. A date in a calendar is a reference to a particular day represented within a calendar system. ...

Fractions and decimals

Here are some common fractions:

Alternatively, and for greater numbers, one may say for 1/2 "one over two", for 5/8 "five over eight", and so on. This "over" form is also widely used in mathematics. (This form is not common in British English.) One half is the irreducible fraction resulting from dividing one by two (½), or any number by its double; multiplication by one half is equivalent to division by two. ...

Numbers with a decimal point may be read as a cardinal number, then "and", then another cardinal number followed by an indication of the significance of the second cardinal number (not common in British English); or as a cardinal number, followed by "point", and then by the digits of the fractional part. The indication of significance takes the form of the denominator of the fraction indicating division by the smallest power of ten larger than the second cardinal. This is modified when the first cardinal is zero, in which case neither the zero nor the "and" is pronounced, but the zero is optional in the "point" form of the fraction.

• For example:
  • 0.002 is "two thousandths" (mainly U.S.); or "point zero zero two", "point oh oh two", "nought point zero zero two", etc.
  • 3.1416 is "three and one thousand four hundred sixteen ten-thousandths" (mainly U.S.); or "three point one four one six"
  • 99.3 is "ninety-nine and three tenths" (mainly U.S.); or "ninety-nine point three".

In English the decimal point was originally printed in the center of the line (0·002), but with the advent of the typewriter it was placed at the bottom of the line, so that a single key could be used as a full stop/period and as a decimal point. In many non-English languages a full-stop/period at the bottom of the line is used as a thousands separator with a comma being used as the decimal point.

• Fractions together with an integer are read as follows:
  • 1 1/2 is "one and a half"
  • 6 1/4 is "six and a quarter"
  • 7 5/8 is "seven and five eighths"

A space is required between the whole number and the fraction; however, if a special fraction character is used like "½", then the space can be done without, e.g.

• • 9 1/2
  • 9½

See also English-language numerals. See also List of numbers (to be merged) There are two main English-language systems of number names: the short scale system (used in the United States, Canada and much of the English-speaking world) and the long scale system (used in most Germanic and Romance languages). ...

Whether to use digits or words

According to most copy editors and English teachers, the numbers zero through nine inclusive should be "written out" – meaning instead of "1" and "2", one would write "one" and "two".

Example: "I have two apples." (Preferred)

Example: "I have 2 apples."

After "nine", one can head straight back into the 10, 11, 12, etc., although some write out the numbers until "twelve".

Example: "I have 28 grapes." (Preferred)

Example: "I have twenty-eight grapes."

Another common usage is to write out any number that can be expressed as one or two words, and use figures otherwise.

Examples:

"There are six million dogs." (Preferred)

"There are 6,000,000 dogs."

"That is one hundred twenty-five oranges."

"That is 125 oranges." (Preferred)

Numbers at the beginning of a sentence should also be written out.

The above rules are not always used. In literature, larger numbers might be spelled out. On the other hand, digits might be more commonly used in technical or financial articles, where many figures are discussed. In particular, the two different forms should not be used for figures that serve the same purpose; for example, it is inelegant to write, "Between day twelve and day 15 of the study, the population doubled."

Empty numbers

Colloquial English has a small vocabulary of empty numbers that can be employed when there is uncertainty as to the precise number to use, but it is desirable to define a general range: specifically, the terms "umpteen", "umpty", and "zillion". These are derived etymologically from the range affixes:

• "-teen" (designating the range as being between 10 and 20)
• "-ty" (designating the range as being in one of the decades between 20 and 100)
• "-illion" (designating the range as being above 1,000,000; or, more generally, as being extremely large).

The prefix "ump-" is added to the first two suffixes to produce the empty numbers "umpteen" and "umpty": it is of uncertain origin. There is a noticeable absence of an empty number in the hundreds range.

Usage of empty numbers:

• The word "umpteen" may be used as an adjective, as in "I had to go to umpteen stores to find shoes that fit." It can also be used to modify a larger number, usually "million", as in "Umpteen million people watched the show; but they still cancelled it."
• "Umpty" is not in common usage. It can appear in the form "umpty-one" (parallelling the usage in such numbers as "twenty-one"), as in "There are umpty-one ways to do it wrong."
• The word "zillion" may be used as an adjective, modifying a noun. The noun phrase normally contains the indefinite article "a", as in "There must be a zillion sites on the World Wide Web."
• The plural "zillions" designates a number indefinitely larger than "millions" or "billions". In this case, the construction is parallel to the one for "millions" or "billions", with the number used as a plural count noun, followed by a prepositional phrase with "of", as in "Out in the countryside, the night sky is filled with zillions of stars."
• Empty numbers are sometimes made up, with obvious meaning: "squillions" is obviously an empty, but very large, number; a "squintillionth" would be a very small number.
• Empty numbers are not modified by actual numbers: in other words, it would not be acceptable to say something like "four zillion" except in jest.
• Empty numbers are colloquial, and primarily used in oral speech or informal contexts. They are inappropriate in formal or scholarly usage.

See also Placeholder name. Placeholder names are words that can refer to objects or people whose names are either irrelevant or unknown in the context in which it is being discussed. ...

Usage notes

While there are a number of "rules" about ways of expressing numbers, the essential requirement must always be to avoid ambiguity. Different authorities do not always agree; for example the following sentence was found in a perfectly respectable document. "It has sold 10,000,000 copies. It was number 21 on a recent list of the 100 most important non-fiction books of the 20th century." This sentence is perfectly clear, and it is unlikely that any reader would change his attitude toward the author because of these "errors".

The usage of either a comma or a point in a number provides a degree of ambiguity too. The number 1,000 would be read as being one thousand in the US and the UK, and as Exactly One in most of Europe and elsewhere. Modern usage in ISO 31-0 shows either the point or the dot to be used for the "Exactly One" form, and for spaces to be used in very large or very small numbers, like in 1 000 000 or in 0.000 000 005 and so on. ISO 31-0 is the introductory part of international standard ISO 31 on quantities and units. ...

With the rise of computers, use of the name of the letter "O" to signify both the letter "O" and numeric zero has become ambiguous. If numbers are typed into the computer as spoken, problems may arise if the numbers are used for anything other than simple display. If a house number is shown on screen as "12O" instead of "120", no harm is done. But if this error is made in a telephone number to be dialed, or in calculations, problems will arise. The simplest solution is always to say "zero" or "nought".

Numeric dates, as normally abbreviated, are ambiguous: the forms "mm/dd/yy", "dd/mm/yy" (where "yy" may be a 2-digit or 4-digit year), are used in different places; in the US, the former is used, and is reflected in the spoken convention for dates there, for example "October Fourth, Two Thousand Five", whereas in Britain, the latter naming convention is used, and would be spoken as "(The) Tenth of April, Two Thousand and Five". The international standard, with the form YYYY-MM-DD avoids ambiguity and 2005-07-09 always means 2005 July the 9th.

See also

• Long and short scales
• List of numbers
• Names of large numbers
• Number names
• Indefinite and fictitious numbers

The long and short scales are two different numerical systems used throughout the world: Short scale is the English translation of the French term échelle courte. ... This is a list of articles about numbers (not about numerals). ... Names of numbers larger than a quadrillion are almost never used, for reasons discussed further below. ... Different cultures have different traditional numeral systems used for writing numbers and for naming large numbers. ... Zillion redirects here. ...

External links

• Dictionary of numbers - tool for convert number to text
• convert numbers to text - convert numbers to text in many languages
• English Numbers - explanations, exercises and number generator (cardinal and ordinal numbers)