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Quick tips: exaggerating numbers

Zach McLaughlin

Many languages have words for large but indefinite numbers, and English is no exception! In fact, there are several words that end with the suffix “-illion” and express huge imaginary numbers. Common ones include: zillion, gazillion, bazillion, jillion, bajillion, and squillion. In my experience, “gazillion” and “bazillion” are particularly common. So, if the salary in Shohei Ohtani’s new contract is too huge to imagine, you can just say that he’s earning a bazillion dollars! (To be clear, these are not real numbers but they are real words!)

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The opinions expressed in this column are the author's own and do not reflect the view of Cafetalk.

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Englisch   Native
Japanisch   Just a few words

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