Is our £billion now a thousand million [like the US, I think]

[kia cat]

Or is it what I thought it used to be, a million, million? Only a BBC news article mention that 3 million of us in the UK have lost £3.5 million [in total, not each!] due to scams on the web. That makes it a grand each. blimey

[Quizmonster]

The latest edition of Chambers (British) Dictionary defines billion as (quote): "a thousand million (especially formerly in Britain a million million)." So, I'm afraid this American idea - largely because of the influence of computers/Internet etc - has now totally taken over here, too, Kia.

[New Judge]

I think you mean that 3 million of us have lost £3.5 BILLION, kia (hence meaning we have lost just over £1,000 each).

Billion interpreted as one thousand million has been widely used in the UK for many years. All budget and finance information has been quoted this way for as long as I can remember. Interestingly the term “trillion” is now being bandied about when sums of 1,000 of these billions are mentioned. This “trillion” equates to a million million – the old interpretation of a billion that you mention.

I suspect it’s all to do with climate change!

[bibblebub]

that good old word MILLIARD has died out, unfortunately

[jno]

money has been international for a long time; so it's made sense for the meanings of words to be harmonised across the English-speaking world. (Perhaps we could pick up crores and lakhs from India to fill in some gaps.) I imagine the American usage prevailed because they've got more billions and more billionaires than we have; or it may just be that 'thousand million' is a bit of a mouthful.

[rov1200]

It gets very confusing when cross dressing our units with that of the US. Their gallon is less than ours. I'm not even sure what a Gigabyte is now? I was taught a nano was 10^9 and a giga was 10^12. But I believe a gigbyte is 10^9 or 1000 million. Very confused!

[rov1200]

My own problem soved. nano is 10^-9 and giga is 10^+9

[ABerrant]

It's only been a thousand million since the UK adopted the Short Scale numbering system in 1974.