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Question for British Rinky-dinks
Posted By: Wolfspirit, on host 216.13.40.208
Date: Friday, July 13, 2001, at 08:47:05

In North America, the word we use to describe a quantity equivalent to a thousand million is one "billion". In the U.K., I've been told -- i.e. so I've heard -- that a "billion" means something else. It could mean something general, more random and less exact, such as a million million. Similar to the way I might describe an impossibly huge number as "eleventy-thirty bajillion."

So is it true that a billion does not mean 1,000,000,000 in Britain?
I suppose this might be one reason to explain why there are no British billionaires.

Wolf "WWTBAB?" spirit

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