how to pronounce billion

/ˈbɪljən/

audio example by a male speaker

audio example by a female speaker

the above transcription of billion is a detailed (narrow) transcription according to the rules of the International Phonetic Association; you can find a description of each symbol by clicking the phoneme buttons in the secction below.

billion is pronounced in two syllables

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1.

2. example pitch curve for pronunciation of billion

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video examples of billion pronunciation

An example use of billion in a speech by a native speaker of american english:

“… citing a 1.8 billion dollar debt to …”

meanings of billion

noun:

A thousand million (1,000 × 1,000^2): 1 followed by nine zeros, 10^9; a milliard.
An unspecified very large number.
A million million (1,000,000^2): a 1 followed by twelve zeros; 10^12.

billion frequency in english - B1 level of CEFR

the word billion occurs in english on average 37.1 times per one million words; this frequency warrants it to be in the study list for B1 level of language mastery according to CEFR, the Common European Framework of Reference.

topics billion can be related to

it is hard to perfectly classify words into specific topics since each word can have many context of its use, but our machine-learning models believe that billion can be often used in the following areas:

1) communication, information, and media;