nonillion
Language: English
Part of speech: num
Pronunciation: -ɪljən
Forms: form: nonillions
Etymology: From non- (“nine”) + -illion.
Senses: examples: text: As we have seen that one nought goes to each potency, for the thirtieth potency we will have for the denominator one followed by thirty noughts; or the original drop of drug in one nonillion drops of alcohol!
ref: 1922 August, S. E. Chapman, “Potentiality of the Infinitesimals”, in The Pacific coast journal of homœpathy, volume 33, number 8, page 244:
text: Do ya not be knowin' that there are 10 nonillion atoms within the likes of us?
ref: 2001, Raymond E. Fowler, The Melchizedek Connection →ISBN, [books.google.co.uk/books?id=rVbXhvS6C1oC&pg=PA70#v=onepage&f=true page 70]
text: The figure is 1,267,700,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. In layperson's terms, that's a little over 1.2 nonillion ancestors in the 100th generation.
ref: 2011, Desmond Walls Allen, Family History Detective: A step-by-step guide to investigating your family tree, Family Tree Books, →ISBN, page 9:
text: Hugh: Just think of the tremendous gravity in a star like the sun. Its mass is a few nonillion pounds. / Henry: Nonillion? Are you making that up? / Hugh: No, it's just one of those things that sticks in my hyperactive brain. A nonillion is a number to the 30th power,...
ref: 2012, Jim Berge, Prayer, Quantum Physics and Hotel Mattresses: Dissolving the Barrier Between the Seen and Unseen, Destiny Image Publishers, →ISBN, page 44:
text: Making certain bold assumptions, my assistant Una determined that chilling the sun’s core to below 10 million degrees would require an ice cube 562,000 miles on a side. If you were planning on using standard-sized cubes from your kitchen freezer, you’d need about 45 nonillion of them.
ref: 2012 September 21, Cecil Adams, "The Straight Dope" (syndicated column)
qualifier: modern British & Australian; short scale; modern British & Australian; short scale
glosses: 10³⁰.
examples: text: The first six figures from the right hand are called the unit period, the next six the million period, after which the trillion, quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion, septillion, octillion, and nonillion periods, follow in their order.
ref: 1819, George Gregory, A new and complete dictionary of arts and sciences: including the latest improvement and discovery and the present states of every branch of human knowledge, volume 1, Collins and Co, page 248:
text: There may be stars placed at a distance from us so remote, that a body moving with a volicity (sic.) of a nonillion of miles in one second of time, would occupy a nonillion of years in passing from them to our earth!! [Footnote: A nonillion is a million nine times repeated; Its value is equal to unity followed by 54 cyphers.]
ref: 1837, James Utting, “Of a conjunction of the Sun, Moon, planets, and satellites”, in The Mechanics Magazine, volume 26, page 381:
text: The odds against the observed event having a purely fortuitous origin are a ⁴trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion (a nonillion nonillion) to one — odds to describe whose vastness "number fails."
⁴ As I understand, a million million is a billion, a million billion is a trillion, a million trillion is a quadrillion, and so on up to a nonillion.
ref: 1886, Francis Ysidro Edgeworth, “The Calculus of Probabilities Applied to Psychical Research. II.”, in Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, volume 4, page 205:
text: Evolution started with an astronomical population explosion in the bacterial phase of five-nonillion†.
ref: 2009, Henry Gobus, Human Ascent, →ISBN:
qualifier: British & Australian; long scale; British & Australian; long scale
glosses: 10⁵⁴.
Synonyms: sense: a long scale quintillion
word: 1030
sense: a short scale septendecillion
word: 1054
Derived terms: nonillionaire
nonillionth