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miliardo

billion

noun meel-YAR-doh Common
Numbers & Measures Cardinal Numbers

Origin: French milliard, from mille (thousand)

Usage Note

Miliardo is the Italian word for one thousand million (10⁹), equivalent to the American/modern English 'billion'. This is a false friend for British English speakers accustomed to 'billion' meaning 10¹² (a million million), which in Italian is un bilione. Miliardo is masculine: un miliardo, due miliardi di euro. The plural miliardi triggers a partitive di before the noun.

Examples

"La città ha tre miliardi di euro di debito."

Natural Translation

The city has three billion euros of debt.

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